He was a brutal tyrant, and nothing more.

I'll post some longer things on the book as I get time (and if there's interest), but two interesting points have been running through my head as I've been reading.

First, what does this do to Hammes' arguments in "The Sling And The Stone"?

Hammes argued, if you'll recall, that it is the power of Mao's formulations:

Phase I: The insurgents concentrate primarily on building political strength. Military action is limited to selected, politically motivated assassinations. Any other military action must have a propaganda purpose to cement the population's support of the insurgents.

Phase II: The insurgents gain strength and consolidate control of base areas. They begin to actively administer some portions of the contested area. And, because Mao had no outside sponsor supplying weapons [an assertion contradicted by Chang - Ed.], they conducted military operations both to capture arms and to wear down government forces.

Phase III: The insurgents commit regular forces (which have been carefully husbanded up to this point) in a final offensive against the government. This phase can only succeed if the "correlation of forces" has been shifted to the insurgents during the early phases.

that drives the power of 4GW. Does it make any difference if Phase I is in fact based on brutalizing the population into supporting the insurgents? And if Phase II can only work if a powerful sponsor is maintaining a flow of cash and materiel (as China did in Vietnam)?

I don't know, and I want to think hard about this (which means: I want you to think hard about it and help me develop my ideas).

Second, and here's one that will get me into serious trouble, but I have to ask anyway. Mao was unquestionably evil. There were, in almost every case, less-brutal, equally effective alternatives to the routes he took.

But - and here's the but - what would China today be like if the Nationalists has won? Would they have created a supersized version of Taiwan (good outcome) or simply have been equally tyrannical and oligarchic? And if you think China is better off today - stronger, more prosperous, no less free - than it would have been under Nationalist tyranny (note that their status in Taiwan as a client state of the US leads me to guess that they were more liberal than they would have otherwise been), do you change your judgement of Mao?

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I observed back in August 2002 that "Islam is what Muslims do - Non-violent Muslims need to wake up; Islam's soul is being murdered."

There are definitely enough Jew- and Christian-hating Muslims in the world, especially including in America and Europe, to make me seriously ponder whether the hatred spewed forth by mullahs and Muslim editorialists is in fact the real McCoy of what Muhammed started.

This is exactly what prominent Egyptian voices are saying now. El-magd's article continues,

"Islamic preaching institutions are in a very acute need for shake-up," said Abdel Moeti Bayoumi, a theology professor at Al-Azhar University and a member of Al-Azhar's Center of Islamic Research. Al-Azhar, in Cairo, is one of the leading Sunni Muslim institutions in the world. Islamic leaders "need to do a lot of work to enlighten clerics and preachers and educate them about the true religious ideas ... and teach them about the realities of the age we're living in," he said.

Back to my 2002 piece.

If what we are experiencing is not the real Islam, then the rest of the Muslims need to get the Islamic house in order. They need to understand that the present crisis is not just that of Islamists against the West, it is the Islamists against everybody who does not tow their line.

Several months later Professor Bala Ambati wrote,

When moderate Muslims state terrorist attacks are disconnected from Islam, they ignore the reality that Islamic fundamentalist imperialists act in the name of Islam and Muslims, claiming "true Islam's" mantle from conspicuously absent moderates. . . . Until the realization that theocracies cannot be democracies dawns throughout the Islamic world, saying terrorism is disconnected from Islam is a smokescreen employed to abdicate responsibility to face reality.

We may be seeing mainstream Muslims awakening now.

Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a Lebanese authority in Shi'a Islam, published a fatwa or religious decree, saying: "We forbid barbaric acts against innocents who have nothing to do with the political demands of terrorists." "These are not martyr operations but barbaric suicide attacks and the culprits deserve only God's punishment," he said, urging the world's Muslims to take a united stand against terrorism.

It must be noted that such responses have come in strength only since the al-Sheik bombings, when, as the United Arab Emirates' Al-Ittihad newspaper noted, (same link),

More than half of the victims were Egyptians, with some Arabs and very few foreigners, so who was specifically targeted and what issues are they (the bombers) defending?

Why haven't such questions been asked about the enormous number of bombings in Iraq by al Qaeda against Iraqi people? There's no good answer, but we probably should be happy to take what we can get at this point. Let us unite in congratulating "a council of Muslim scholars in the United States [that] has issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, against terrorism and extremism."

The Muslim scholars released the ruling during a press conference in Washington, saying that Islam condemns terrorism, religious radicalism and the use of violence.

The scholars serve on the Fiqh Council of North America, an association of Muslim jurists who interpret Islamic law.

The council's chairman, Muzammil Siddiqi, read the fatwa, which says "targeting civilians' life and property through suicide bombings or any other method of attack is forbidden, and those who commit these barbaric acts are criminals, not martyrs."

"All acts of terrorism targeting the civilians are haram, forbidden in Islam. It is haram, forbidden, for a Muslim to cooperate or associate with any individual or group that is involved in any act of terrorism or violence," he said.

The fatwa also says it is the "civic and religious duty of Muslims to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to protect the lives of civilians."

The Islamic scholars say the fatwa was prompted by a similar ruling from the Muslim Council of Britain, following the July 7 terrorist attacks in London. ...

The Muslim scholars have called for the fatwa to be read during Friday prayers at mosques across the United States.

This American fatwa is stouter than the British Muslims, though, because,

British Muslim leaders, for example, reserved the right to commit suicide bombings to fight an occupying power. That could be construed to give approval to suicide bombers in Iraq or Israel.

The American fatwa makes no such distinction. There are other voices of prominent Muslims taking a stand. Turki Al-Faisal, newly-named Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, wrote that the terrorists,

... claim to be faithful to Islam and faithful to God but they are not. This is not Islam and these acts are absolutely not the will of God. Their twisted vision is alien to the healthy body of the faith that holds the world's Muslim community together. ...

Imams and teachers who have used Islam to bolster and preach their political beliefs have done so by perverting traditional Islamic texts. Declaring fatwas permitting suicide bombings goes against everything at the heart of Islam. These so-called Muslim scholars must be and are condemned. They are violating the most dearly held principles of Islam. ...

What, then, must be done? The Islamic world needs to acknowledge the cancer within its own community and to root it out. Muslim scholars must come out loudly and strongly against suicide bombings regardless of where, when and why they have happened. We must undertake a global act of collective self-examination. In Islamic terms this is a project of muhasaba, a quest for the authentic Muslim voice that can dissolve the dark forces of destruction and point toward our true human values that cherish life and can bring about true human flourishing.

(This piece was co-authored with George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.) I'll leave the last word to Dr. Ambati, who minces none of them:

Moderate Muslims must choose whether to let megalomaniacs, liars, misogynists and murderers hijack societies and religion and pilot them into destruction's abyss. Sidelines are not moral high ground. Unequivocally repudiating and forswearing terrorist methods and imperialist aims of Islamic fundamentalism by moderate Muslims is overdue. This requires calling the present jihad by mujahadeen and martyrs awaiting paradise its name, hirabah (unholy war) by mufsidoon (evildoers) bound for jahannam (hell).

Steps are being taken, baby steps for now, but steps nonetheless. We must be watchful and encourage them not to falter.

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Religious Hate:

• Radical British Muslims on the London bombings, in their own words.

  Omar Bakri:

  [Bakri’s] site carried a picture of the wreckage of the No 30 bus in Tavistock Square and condemned the fatwa against suicide bombs signed by 500 imams as “clear blasphemy against Islam”.

  and again:

  But in another interview, with BBC1's 10 O'clock News, he said there was "no way" he would condemn Osama Bin Laden. He said: "Why I condemn Osama Bin Laden for? I condemn Tony Blair, I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama Bin Laden or any Muslims."

  al-Muhajiroun leader Anjem Choudary:

  He said the secular as well as moderate British Muslims were also to be blamed for the London bombings. ''They've been saying all along that al-Qaida doesn't really exist, there's no such thing as holy war, nobody's going to do it in Britain. Whereas people like us, we were giving the warning.''...

  Well, he’s right about that. Finally, via LGF, the Christian Science Monitor profiles a sidewalk preacher and his followers:

  Last fall, addressing a meeting of scores of British radicals, he sighed: "At the moment in Britain there is no jihad." Faces fell around the hall.

  "Yet!" he exclaimed suddenly, to approving murmurs. The jihad would soon come, Abu Osama predicted, and he urged his listeners to embrace its arrival.

  I think he means it.

• Not to put too fine a point on it – this is what really fries me.

  SHEIKH KHALID YASIN: There’s no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend , so a non-Muslim could be your associate but they can’t be a friend. They’re not your friend because they don’t understand your religious principles and they cannot because they don’t understand your faith. [emphasis mine]

  Forget (for a moment) jihad and suicide bombing – is this an authentically Islamic stance on friendship? Just asking.

• Via Instapundit, GayPatriot reminds us that gay and lesbian folks hold a special place in the terrorists hearts:

  A British LGBT civil rights group says its leaders have received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists and warns that gay clubs could be targets for terrorist bombers. "Gay venues could be bombed by Islamic terrorists," OutRage said Monday. "All gay bars and clubs should introduce bag and body searches. Muslim fundamentalists have a violent hatred of lesbians and gay men. They believe we should be killed. Our community could be their next target. This is no time for complacency." …OutRage said that three of the group's officers have received "repeated death threats from Islamic fundamentalists in recent weeks and months." [emphasis mine]

  Read GP’s whole post – the photo of the two young Iranians being hanged (allegedly for rape, though this is questionable) puts a face to the issue in a way words cannot.

• Michael Graham affords me the opportunity to demonstrate that I am not a card carrying member of the RoPMA crowd: link. “The problem is not extremism,” Graham said, according to both CAIR and the station. “The problem is Islam.” He also said, “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam.” For once, I’m forced to take CAIR’s side:

  “It’s amazing,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s communications director. “I talked with Mr. Bloomquist and asked him if he would reprimand someone who used the n-word on the air. He said yes. I asked him if he would reprimand someone who read [approvingly] from the [anti-Semitic] ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’ He said yes. So I asked him if he would do the same if someone had called Islam a terroristic organization. Well, he said, it’s all about context, but he never quite explained it to me.”

  Hooper has a point. I favor the careful formula articulated by the new pope Benedict XVI – asked if Islam is a Religion of Peace, he replied:

  "I would not like to use big words to apply generic labels," he replied. "It certainly contains elements that can favor peace, it also has other elements: We must always seek the best elements." [emphasis mine]

  I disagree with Robert Spencer here, I think Benedict meant exactly what he said, and understands that contradictory doctrines may still claim authentic grounding – a key insight.

• Compared to some of his previous sermons, Saudi Sheikh Al-Sudayyis’s latest sermon was pretty mild, merely calling for Allah to punish the occupying Zionists, infidels, et al . From MEMRI:

  In his Friday sermon of July 15, 2005, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis said: "Oh Allah, liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque from the defilement of the occupying and brutal Zionists… Oh Allah, punish the occupying Zionists and their supporters from among the corrupt infidels. Oh Allah, scatter and disperse them, and make an example of them for those who take heed."

  It should be noted that the website www.alminbar.net, which regularly posts Al-Sudayyis's sermons, edited out the above segment, as did the Saudi Gazette, which regularly reports on his sermons.

  It seems the Saudi Gazette was anxious scrub anything that smacked of incitement. Sea change, or merely Orwellian?

• Review of the draft Iraqi constitution leaves Iraqi Christians fearful they will become second class citizens. Meanwhile, Omar at Iraq the Model is not too thrilled about the potential role of Sharia, either.

• Are these mothers in Indonesia facing jail for handing out candy? No, perhaps they were engaging in Christian evangelism. Guess they had it coming. And so do the Ahmadiyah. And the teapot! [Whoops, that last one is from Malaysia, not Indonesia. My bad.]

Idiotarian Seethings:

• Via Instapundit and Captain Ed: Speculating on the response of the US in the event of a terrorist nuke, Tom Tancredo suggests we could bomb Mecca. No blog commenting moron he, but a Representative of the State of Colorado.

  "Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.

  "You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.

  "Yeah," Tancredo responded.

  Captain Ed’s take:

  The idea that the US would retaliate in such a manner should be repulsive to any rational person, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum. The war on terror targets the terrorists and the governments which fund and/or shelter them, not the civilians who happen to live there.

  Exactly right. Again via Glenn, Hugh Hewitt piles on after Tancredo “doubles down on his absurd insistence that ‘bombing Mecca’ ought to be ‘on the table.’”

  "Supporting" Congressman Tancredo on this issue identifies you as an American interested in comforting noise rather than progress in the GWOT.

  Bingo.

• Two (Bronx) cheers for retired Lebanese general Dr. Hisham Jaber, who fills my jaded little heart with mirth. Beyond the usual “9-11 was the product of Global Zionism” drek, he delivers this brand new chestnut:

  "Regardless of the logic of conspiracy, I would like to say something. We read history, and we know that since The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Zionism has forged the New Testament – and by now, 60 million in the U.S. alone have left Christianity to become believers in the Torah.

  I had no idea Judaism was the fastest growing religion in the US.

• What’s sadder – that some Egyptian security “experts” claim that Israel is behind the Sharm e-Sheikh attacks because they believe it, or because they can cynically exploit the ready market for such claims?

  According to [retired army general Fuad Allam], investigations have shown that the mastermind of the Taba attack was a Palestinian “apparently linked to Israel’s security forces.” He added: “I’m almost certain that Israel was also behind this attack because they want to undermine our government and deal a severe blow to our economy. The only ones who benefit from these attacks are the Israelis and the Americans.”

  Message to Gen. Allam: the civilization you put at risk with your idiotarian seething is not only ours – it is yours as well.

Race and Culture:

• So, who really believes that nutty conspiracy theory stuff, anyway? The families of the people who died at Sharm:

  They know the answer, yes: the television said that only the Israelis and the Americans have a real interest in seeing Egypt on its knees; General Fuad Allam said that the perpetrators of the Taba attack of October 2004 were apparently linked to the Israeli security forces, and so, supposedly, it is today. Also Al-Jazeera and even Al-Arabia interviewed "experts" to confirm this point of view. A big, beautiful guy with a red T-shirt just puts it down bluntly: "We know only what the television tells us."

  If you’re a moderate Muslim, there’s no point in confronting radicalism if the perpetrators couldn’t possibly be Muslim. Worth reading.

• Although not adherents of Islam, the Aryan Nations looks at the jihadis and likes what it sees:

  Further … we have taken this approach with alliances to Islamic adherents, because we find their standards of morality to be nearly analogous to our own , and their resolve to uproot and destroy the fallen tree of the Garden, the satanic “jew”, to also be analogous to our own desires and devotion. [emphasis mine]

  Shorter AN: “The enemy of the Jew is my friend”. (No links to the Aryan Nations site, on general principle, but if you’re not familiar with “Christian Identity” theology, do some research – it’d be funny if these guys weren’t so dangerous.

• In the Ukraine, the literary world is experiencing an explosive fit of anti-Semitic delusion:

  One of the newspapers published a call by the writers to convene an extraordinary congress of Ukrainian writers to destroy “the hotbed of the Elders of Zion ” within the union.

  In a separate development, the head of the Ukrainian Book Chamber published an open letter calling for violence against Jews . The letter by Nikolai Senchenko was published by the newspaper of MAUP, Ukraine’s largest private university, whose leadership has a long history of anti-Semitism. [emphasis mine]

  According to the article, anti-Yuschenko political motivation may be behind some of this agitation, but once lit, these fires feed themselves.

• FSUmonitor.com is the “site for daily news, opinion, and advocacy on Jews and human rights in the former Soviet Union”. Much of the focus is on anti-Semitic incitement and violence in Russia and the former Soviet Republics, but other racist acts such as the recent beating death of a Vietnamese man by skinheads in a Moscow park. Hostis humanis generis.

• Two thoughtful pieces on the rise of modern Islamist ideology and influence. First, Dr. Matthias Küntzel traces the collaboration between the Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood to transform Arab attitudes towards Jews, giving evidence that particular type of anti-Semitism endemic in the modern Middle East is of German origin, and not Islamic:

  Islam was quite a different story. Here it was not the Jews who murdered the Prophet, but the Prophet who murdered the Jews: in the years between 623 and 627 Mohammed enslaved, expelled, or killed all the Jewish tribes of Medina. As a result, the characteristic features of Christian anti-Semitism did not arise in the Muslim world. "There were no fears of Jewish conspiracy and domination, no charges of diabolic evil. Jews were not accused of poisoning wells or spreading the plague." Instead, the Jews were treated with contempt or condescending tolerance. This cultural inheritance made the idea that the Jews of all people could represent a permanent danger for the Muslims and the world seem absurd.

  Worth reading the whole thing. [Hat tip: Dhimmiwatch]. Next, a carefully researched piece by Ian Johnson published originally in the Wall Street Journal, and linked here in the Pittsburg Post Gazette. The article traces the post war emergence of the Islamic Center of Munich, and it’s role in the radical Islamist agenda. This story is something of a moral kaleidoscope, involving ex-Nazis, the CIA, and again, the Muslim Brotherhood. [Hat tip: “Lunchbox”].

A Hopeful Note:

• Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf commenting on Islamist hatred and incitement in Britain:

  "They [Hizb ut-Tahrir and al Muhajiroun] had the audacity of passing an edict against my life and yet they operate with full impunity. They also give sermons of hate and anger and violence," he said. "Therefore ... there is a lot to be done by Pakistan internally. And may I suggest there is a lot to be done in England also."

  You know, when he’s right, he’s right. Musharraf has detained hundreds of “prayer leaders” and Tony Blair’s government has begun to take steps begun to take steps against hate preachers in Britain. We’ll be watching.

• Amazing – after nearly ten years, the United Nations General Assembly may move forward on a "comprehensive convention on international terrorism". (Further, major reform of the (thoroughly) discredited “Commission on Human Rights” is also planned.) Kofi Annan, no less, has “suggested as a definition [of terrorism] a simple statement branding any intentional maiming or killing of civilians as terrorism, regardless of the cause.” After obstructing such a simplistic formula as prejudicial towards Palestinian “liberation”, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has removed his objections, as has secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic States Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu:

  "Terrorism ... has inflicted so much damage and brought nothing but harm to the Muslim world and its standing, particularly by demonizing the image and reputation of Muslims in the eyes of the world," Ihsanoglu said in a statement issued in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

  We would have preferred something along the lines of “Terrorism... is just friggin’ wrong!”, but if the resolution is adopted, I suppose we should take it. It won’t change the world, but perhaps CBS and the BBC will feel more comfortable with the word...

• Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Ibrahim al-Ja'fari calls bulls**t on the Arab media regarding double standards and moral relativism:

  "There are crimes committed in Iraq that are not labeled as terrorism [such as] the murder of policemen and heroic Iraqi soldiers...The pure and honest Iraqi woman is killed and this is not called terrorism; the innocent Iraqi child is murdered and the Arabic media does not call it terrorism. The Arabic media remains hostile and not objective. I address my admonition to the satellite TV channels to rise to the level of their responsibilities by showing the facts and calling a spade a spade."

  Sadly, Dr. Ja’Fari, too many of the western media fail to call it terrorism either.

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"I was reading an Arab newspaper yesterday when I came across the following names, all on the same page: Dary [derived from the word for ferocious beast], Harb [war], Sa'ab [harsh], Mot'eb [troublesome], Mos'eb [ruthless], 'Adey [aggressive], Mohned [sword-bearer] and Juhaiman [implacable]. In addition, there was a woman's name, Anoud [stubborn]. A sociological study that takes into account the factors of geography and politics can easily trace the cultural background of the geopolitical environment that bestows such names on its children. The common denominator linking all these names together is xenophobia, an inflexibly hostile and combative attitude towards the other."

"Do you mean," I asked, "that the Islamic background is the common denominator between these names?"

Forcefully denying that this had been his intention, he reminded me that according to the prophet's biographer Ibn Hashem, when Mohamed's first grandson was born he refused to name him Harb (war) and called him Al-Hassan instead.

The explanation for the belligerency of the names, said my eccentric friend, is that they are a product of the culture and mentality of Bedouin tribes struggling for survival in the inhospitable deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. In this harsh environment, the Other is seen as an enemy that must be destroyed [hence the name Fatek or Destroyer], ferociously fought off [hence the name Dary or Ferocity], engaged in battle [hence the name Harb or war], and shown no mercy [hence the names Sa'ab, Mos'eb and Mote'eb, all from the same etymological root of the Arabic word for harsh, ruthless or uncompromising]. Communication with the Other is through the language of the sword [hence the name Mohannad or sword-bearer], no quarter given [hence the name Juhaiman or implacable]. Even women in that society are given names like 'Anoud or stubborn.

There is nothing Islamic about those names, he went on, they are exclusive to the Bedouin culture that developed in the harsh deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.

This is confirmed by the fact that they are totally absent from other Islamic societies like Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon. No Egyptian peasant would dream of bestowing any of those names on his son. He will call his first-born Saber or patient, and his long-awaited second son Shehata or Shehta, which means charity, in gratitude for the munificence of God in answering his prayers for another son. Even if he opts for a name that includes a reference to God, he will normally steer clear of names that conjure up the awesome and fear-inspiring aspects of the Almighty, like Abdul Gabbar, and go instead for names that reflect His benign nature, like Abdullah, Abdul Latif, Abdul Hafith or Abdul Ghani. The reason Egyptians prefer to focus on the benevolence of their Creator is deeply embedded in the Egyptian character.

Having spent many years in North Africa and made frequent visits to Syrian and Lebanon, I can safely say that what is true of Egypt applies equally to all these societies, where the bloody phalanx of names deriving from the austere and belligerent culture of desert tribes is virtually unknown. I am writing these lines in a region lying along the Egyptian-Libyan border where the cultural influences of the two countries blend and interact to form a unique composite culture. Nowhere did I come across any of the names that reflect a paranoid sense of conflict ascribed to the supposed hostility of the Other, who is automatically cast in the role of the enemy. In this northwestern corner of Egypt, the name Salem or peaceful is one of the most common names, despite the harsh environment imposed by the geography of the place, while in Sudan to the south the name Bashir, or harbinger of glad tidings, is frequently heard.

My eccentric friend ended with the words:

"Imagine yourself talking to a man from those societies who introduces himself as Fatek ibn Dary el Juhaimy... What could you say except: God spare me from your ferocity, destructiveness and implacability!"

What's in a name? What shall our name be before the human community?

As I noted in an earlier article here on Winds of Change.NET:

"I write in order to instill in the Egyptian mind the fact that although the outside world will harbour animosities towards us at times, and will work to further its own interests most of the time, our problems, in their entirety, originate inside our country and can only be solved internally. We alone are responsible for those problems and for the fact that they remain unsolved. The excessive belief in the conspiracy theory is a confession of our impotence and an admission of the supremacy of others in the face of our ineffectiveness.

...I write in order to instill in the Egyptian mind that Anwar Sadat's historic choice to move the Arab/Israeli conflict from the battlefield to the negotiation table was the only way to reach a reasonable settlement of a conflict that has been used for too long as an excuse to delay democracy and development.

...I write in order to instill in the Egyptian mind that there are shortcomings in Western culture, but it is an essential rung on the ladder of human civilization. To oppose Western culture is to oppose science, development and civilization.

...I write in order to instill in the Egyptian mind that the tolerant and peaceful brand of Egyptian Islam has been subjected to attacks on many fronts. The attacks came from a trinity made up of the Wahabi faith, a doctrinaire approach to religion, and the omnipotence of the petrodollar that has funded an Islam fundamentally different from the gentle Islam practiced in Egypt and which has enabled us to coexist with others over the years.

...I write in order to instill in the Egyptian mind (especially in the minds of the young) that where there is a will there is a way and that, armed with a solid formation and determination, they can achieve anything. The future does not exist as such; it is the product of what we create today.

These are the messages I have tried to convey in the hundreds of articles and the thirteen books I published over the past quarter of a century. Skeptics may consider that my voice, like that of John the Baptist, is a cry in the wilderness. They would do well to remember that the words of John the Baptist were far more than a cry in the wilderness, that they were, in fact, stepping stones towards a noble and glorious path.

What will be our name? What will be, in our name?

For more of Tarek Heggy's writtings in English, please visit www.t-heggy-site-contents.org and for Tarek Heggy's writings in French please visit www.metransparent.com/authors/french/tarek_heggy.htm.

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The nouns all come from the verb wiccian "to practice witchcraft," which has relatives in Low German. But the exact origin of it is lost in the murk of history.

The Oxford English Dictionary simply dismisses it as of uncertain origin. Ernest Klein's etymology dictionary suggests a connection with Old English wigle "divination," and wig, wih "idol."

Calvert Watkins, another noted modern etymology writer, suggests the nouns represent a Proto-Germanic *wikkjaz "necromancer," and thinks this may mean literally "one who wakes the dead." He bases this on the notion that the root of the word is Proto-Indo-European *weg- "to be strong, be lively" (the root of wake (v.) and vigil).

The early 20th century English etymologist Ernest Weekly notes a possible connection to Gothic weihs "holy" and German weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents."

That wicce once had a more specific sense than the later general one of "female magician, sorceress" perhaps is suggested by the presence of other words in Anglo-Saxon describing more specific kinds of magical craft. In the Laws of Ælfred (c.890), for instance, witchcraft was specifically singled out as a woman's craft, whose practitioners were not to be suffered to live among the West Saxons:

"Ða fæmnan þe gewuniað onfon gealdorcræftigan & scinlæcan & wiccan, ne læt þu ða libban."

The other two words combined with it here are gealdricge, a woman who practices "incantations," and scinlæce "female wizard, woman magician," from a root meaning "phantom, evil spirit."

Another word that appears in the Anglo-Saxon laws is lyblæca "wizard, sorcerer," but with suggestions of skill in the use of drugs, since the root of the word is lybb "drug, poison, charm." Lybbestre was a feminine noun meaning "sorceress," and lybcorn was the name of a certain medicinal seed (perhaps wild saffron).

In Anglo-Saxon glossaries, wicca renders Latin augur (c.1100), and wicce stands for "pythoness, divinatricem." One glossary translates Latin necromantia ("demonum invocatio") with galdre, wiccecræft.

But the Anglo-Saxon poem called "Men's Crafts" has wiccræft, which appears to be the same word, and by its context means "skill with horses." And in a c.1250 translation of "Exodus," witches is used as a word for the Egyptian midwives who save the newborn sons of the Hebrews: "Ðe wicches hidden hem for-ðan, Biforen pharaun nolden he ben."

If witch once had a narrower meaning, after the Christian conquest it acquired a much broader one. "At this day," Reginald Scot wrote in "The Discoverie of Witchcraft" (1584), "it is indifferent to say in the English tongue, 'she is a witch,' or 'she is a wise woman.' "

The witch in witch hazel seems to be a different word, from Old English wican "to bend."

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Witch in reference to a man survived in dialect into the 20th century, but the feminine form was so dominant by 1601 that men-witches or he-witch began to be used. Gradually, though wizard emerged as the male equivalent of witch.

Wizard goes back at least to the early 15th century, and its earliest meaning was "philosopher, sage," which is no surprise since the root of it is Middle English wys "wise."

Other languages than English also have seen words for "wise man" become words for "magician" (such as Lithuanian zynys "sorcerer," zyne "witch," both from zinoti "to know"). The connecting sense in this transition is perhaps "to know the future."

The meaning "one with magical power" did not emerge distinctly in English wizard until c.1550, the distinction between philosophy and magic being somewhat blurry in the Middle Ages.

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Wand is a word that first appears in English about 1200, and it comes via the Viking invasion, from Old Norse vondr "rod, switch." The root of this is Proto-Germanic *wend- "to turn," which is the root of wind (v.). The notion is of a bending, flexible stick.

The phrase magic wand is attested from c.1400, which shows the etymological sense of "suppleness" already had been lost from the word by then.

But the original notion is preserved in a German cognate, Wand "wall." What's the connection between a wand and a wall? Well, originally the German word meant "wickerwork for making walls," or "wall made of wattle-work," which turns this little word into an insight into prehistoric Germanic domestic architecture.

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Magic came into English around Chaucer's time, originally meaning "the art of influencing events and producing marvels." Unlike witch, it's an import, from Old French magique, which in turn is from Latin magice "sorcery, magic."

The Romans got the word from Greek magike (an adjective presumably with tekhne "art"), which is a feminine form from the noun magos "member of the learned and priestly class." This is a word the Greeks picked up from Persia, and it is the same word that has come down, in another form, as Magi.

Old Persian also is an Indo-European language, and the root of Old Persian magush may be Proto-Indo-European *magh- "to be able, to have power," which would connect it with many modern words, including might and machine.

The French import displaced native wiccecræft and also drycræft, from dry "magician," which was related to the Irish root of Druid..

The transferred sense of magic from a supernatural power to "legerdemain, optical illusion, etc." took place around 1811.

But the connection of magi and witch is explicit in the medieval "Three Kings of Cologne" (c.1400):

"Þe paynyms ... cleped þe iij kyngis Magos, þat is to seye wicchis."

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The noun spell with the meaning "incantation, set of words with magical powers," is first recorded in the 16th century. Its earlier meaning is reflected by the Old English ancestor of the word, spell, which meant "story, speech."

This comes, of course, from the same root as the verb spell meaning
"name the letters of," which came from Anglo-Saxon spellian, which meant "to tell, speak." The meaning "write or say the letters of a word" began to appear about 1400, from notion of "read letter by letter, read with difficulty."

So a root meaning "say words, speak" forked in English, one branch going down the path of "say magical words" and the other "to name the letters which make up a word."

Many synonyms of the noun spell also mean, basically, "to speak." Old English also had galdor, which meant "spell, enchantment," but also "song," and comes from galan "to sing," the source of the second element in nightingale. German has besprechen "to charm," from sprechen "to speak."

Enchant comes via French enchanter "bewitch, charm," from Latin incantare, which was used of magic spells but literally meant "to sing upon," from in- and cantare "to sing."

Fascinate, though its sense weakened in the 19th century to "delight, attract" originally meant "bewitch, enchant," and was used to describe the actions of witches and serpents, who were said to be able to cast a spell by a look that rendered one unable to move or resist.

It has been traced back to Latin fascinus "spell, witchcraft," which may ultimately come from a Thracian form of Greek phaskein "to say."

A different path from language to magic flows through glamor, which originally meant "magic, enchantment." It's a variation of Scottish gramarye "magic, enchantment, spell," but which is in fact itself a variant of our old friend grammar, which in Scotland also preserved the general medieval sense of "any sort of scholarship," especially occult learning. Glamor was popularized in England and America by the writings of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Its main modern sense of "magical beauty, alluring charm" is first recorded in 1840.

The other verb spell "work in place of (another)," probably has no relation to magic or letters. It came from Old English spelian "to take the place of," which seems to be a relative of spilian "to play," and modern spiel.

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The witch's flying broomstick originally was also many other objects (pitchfork, trough, bowl), but the broomstick became the popular image via engravings from a famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612.

Broom, of course, is the common flowering shrub whose twigs were tied together to make a tool for sweeping. The word is recognizable in Old English brom, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz "thorny bush" (cf. German Brombeere "blackberry"). In English folklore, both the flowers of the broom and sweeping with broom twigs were traditionally considered unlucky in May (Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire, etc.).

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I've been dining with my co-workers - part of the reason for my trip is to take the folks here out and get to know them. They're young information workers, hip, liberal, anti-war marchers almost to a man.

And the bombings have made them quite willing to see the Muslim community in the U.K. placed under close watch; the radical imams deported or jailed, their anti-Western mosques closed, and their disaffected young followers deported - or jailed. Political correctness? Fuggedabout it. Civil rights? "What about the civil rights of the victims?" they reply.

This is a big deal. The political cost of terrorism just went up. I think the IRA just did the math and decided that a change was necessary.

It's never been free...note Hammes' book talks about this loss in his discussion of the second Intifada... but somehow I'm wondering of the cost hasn't gone up dramatically.

I'd always assumed that the IRA had been badly weakened by 9/11, as much of it's financial base in the 70's and 80's was in the American Northeast. And I can't believe that the donations were as forthcoming in October.

It'll be interesting to watch and see how tis plays out.

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Sunni nationalist vs. Sunni Islamists?

• Opinions differ as to what degree the Sunni groups that make up the insurgency unite and subdivide. Many analysts believe that the Baathists and their formerly Salafist and Kurdish enemies have found a common cause with foreign al-Qaeda fighters. There are reports of fighting between the more secular Iraqi insurgents and foreign al-Qaeda insurgents as well as cases of executions of Islamists by the more secular groups but the level of cooperation and communication between the various movements remains unclear.

• The inability to characterize many Islamist movements and the fact that most of the successful suicide bombings and insurgent attacks have a major political and media impact even if they serve little military purpose illustrates the fact that the foreign al-Qaeda must be measured in terms of effectiveness rather than in size or numbers. In practice, they can choose the the time and place of attacks, focus on targets with key political and media impact, and have an effect even if they fail to achieve the purpose of their attacks but still manage to create visible explosions or kill civilians.

• Insurgents often have excellent intelligence from spies within the Iraqi government, military, industry, and other groups supporting the US and the new government that enables them to locate soft targets, hit key points in terms of the Iraqi economy and aid projects, time their attacks to points of exceptional vulnerability. In practice, this enables them to pick off weak and vulnerable elements of the Iraqi military, security, and police forces in attacks that result in significant casualties. At the same time, in many areas they can use intimidation, threats, kidnappings, and selective assassinations to paralyze or undercut nascent Iraqi units. As a result, a relatively small number of insurgents can bypass or attack the developing Iraqi forces with considerable success.

• Al-Qaeda and allied insurgent groups pose a special threat because they have no clear boundaries that limit them to Iraq and few restraints on the limits or types of violence they are willing to employ. From their perspective, Iraq is simply a theater of combat for broader operations. Their core beliefs are based on a vision of Sunni Islam that rejects Shi'ites and Sunnis alike who dissent from their extremist views. Thus far, these groups have been very careful to avoid any open claims of a split with the Iraqi Shi'ites and some have cooperated with Sadr and the Mahdi Army. They have also, however, carried out mass bomb attacks against Shi'ites and have repeatedly shown that they place few limits on the means of violence against those they regard as enemies of Islam. They stand to gain the most if the Sunni and Shi'ite communities splinter, if Iraq becomes the continuing scene of violence between the US and Sunni Arabs, if the US is tied down, or if their actions create as much regional instability as possible.

• Sunni insurgents and in particular al-Qaeda have made the Iraqi political process a target both before and after the January elections, which insurgents feared would cement Shi'ite dominance in Iraq and signal the demise of both al-Qaeda and Baathist visions for the future of Iraq. From December 2004 onward, Ansar al-Sunnah, Jaish Islami fi Iraq, and Zarqawi himself declared their intention to carry out attacks on Iraqi polling stations, with Zarqawi denouncing democracy as a whole as an infidel ideology. This extremism is "justified" in frequent appeals to real and imagined US actions that are characterized as dehumanizing Muslims, such as the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and US strategic writings on the use of tactical nuclear weapons, and claims are made that this dehumanization makes the use of chemical and biological weapons against American civilians or the use military in Iraq.

The uncertainty of the Shi'ites

• As with their Sunni bretheren, Iraqi Shi'ites favor a united Iraq with a strong central government according to public opinion polls. These polls also show Iraqi Shi'ites to be strongly religious in that they view Iraq as an "Islamic" as well as an Arab state, but do not show popular support for anything resembling the Khomeinist model that governs Iran. With the exception of Muqtada al-Sadr, no leading Iraqi cleric advocates anything resembling the Iranian belief in the rahbar or a supreme leader wielding both religious and secular powers. Grand Ayatollah Sistani strongly opposes the Khomeinist concept of direct clerical participation in politics in general and in government in particular.

• Key Shi'ite political parties in the ruling United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) coalition such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and Dawaa have a strong religious character but are largely secular in their political goals and actions. While both parties relocated to Iran and operated from there from 1980 to 2003, they remain Iraqi nationalists and their gratitude to Iran is extremely limited because of the Iranian tendency to utilize both groups in an optimistic manner and then leave them out to dry. Dawaa members are often critical of Iran in private and members of both groups resent Khomeini's attempts to coerce them into recognizing his authority as rahbar.

• The risk of civil war in Iraq is limited but cannot be dismissed off-hand. Iraqi Shi'ites resent the US occupation, but most recognize that they make up 60% of the population and will be able to establish themselves as a major force inside Iraq if the country becomes a successful democracy. Not all, however, are willing to recognize the need to include Sunnis in the new government or the military in light of their past treatment at the hands of Saddam's regime.

Muqtada al-Sadr

• Currently, al-Sadr appears to be participating in the Iraqi political process and opposing any major outbreaks of sectarian violence. His Mahdi Army did, however, pose a major threat to coalition and Iraqi government forces in An Najaf, the Sadr City area of Baghdad, and other Shi'ite areas during the summer and early fall of 2004, when US forces were facing up to 160 attacks a week in Sadr City between August and September 2004. As a result of al-Sadr's decision to turn away from armed struggle, these attacks have dropped between 0-5 a week in 2005 after al-Sadr sided with the UIA and his supporters now play a role in both the Iraqi National Assembly and other branches of the new government.

• General Abizaid stated in March 2005 that the US had not seen the last of Muqtada al-Sadr and while Iraqi forces have been able to enter Sadr City, the cleric's movement continues to play an important role there and in other poorer Shi'ite areas. Al-Sadr supporters sponsored demonstrations calling for US withdrawl in April 2005 and Sadrists involved in the National Independent Bloc (NIB) warned Ibrahim Jaafari that unless he listened to their demands, released some of the 200 Sadrists who had been arrested during the earlier fighting, and dropped all charges against their leader they might well break with the UIA and join the opposition.

• Al-Sadr has been able to skillfully exploit the political weaknesses and divisions in other Shi'ite movements in the south and their lack of experience in governing as well as the fact that a number of hard-line Islamists won significant numbers of seats in the local governments of key cities like Basra. Al-Sadr's Council for Preservation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice launched at least one attack against students in Basra for holding a mixed gender picnic.

• Al-Sadr has also revived the Mahdi Army and it has become openly active again in Basra, Amarah, An Nasiriyah, Kut, and even An Najaf. While the US believes that the movement was significantly weakened by the 2004 fighting, it has begun holding parades again and still has access to hidden arms depots that were established last year. By the late spring of 2005, the Mahdi Army was the largest armed non-government force in Basra, played a major role in policing Amarah, and had negotiated an agreement with the An Nasiriyah police to assist them in carrying out their duties. Unlike most Iraqi paramilitaries, the Mahdi Army is seen as more "legitimate" because it commands the approval of the son of one of Iraq's most beloved clerics and most Sadrists are strongly supported by Muqtada. A major reason for the rebirth and expansion of the Mahdi Army is the lack of effective action by the new Iraqi government - for instance, the number of police in An Nasiriyah was only 5,500, well short of the 8,000 needed to effectively police the city.

Other Shi'ite Factions

• SCIRI and its Abdul Aziz al-Hakim faction still maintain sizeable paramilitaries and have occasionally been accused of carrying out attacks against Iraqi Shi'ites. Dawaa, the Badr Corps, and the Iraqi Hezbollah remain potential security threats and many Sunnis in particular feel threatened by the Badr Corps due to its long history with Iran. Yet Shi'ite-Sunni tensions stretch beyond sectarian militias and both interim Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawwar and King Abdullah of Jordan warned of the risk of Shi'ite dominance following the Iraqi elections and possible Iranian influence. These warnings are likely exaggerated, as Iraqi Shi'ites are nationalists rather than Iranian pawns and that no Iraqi clerics save al-Sadr support the Khomeinist model of politics, yet no one can predict how stable the new Iraqi political structure will be in the wake of the January elections.

• Shi'ite and Kurdish militias have been accused by Iraqi Sunnis of launching assassination and intimidation campaigns against them, an issue that accquired new urgency in June 2005 in which President Jalal Talabani praised the Kurdish peshmerga and the Badr Organization, the political wing of the Badr Corps. Talabani and SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim also appeared at al-Hakim's headquarters to celebrate the Badr Corps' anniversary where he praised the militia's contributions to the new Iraq and addressed complaints that had been made against it, declaring the Badr Organization a "shield" protecting the new Iraq. Militias like the Badr Corps were supposed to have been abolished under guidelines set up by the interim Iraqi government and nominally operate under the auspices of the ministries of Defense and Interior and Kurds have long vowed to maintain the autonomy of the peshmerga as a means of guaranteeing Kurdish security.

• Many questions still surround the Badr Corps, which is vehemently condemned by many Sunnis. Created by SCIRI and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Badr is claimed by Sunnis to have been responsible for the assassination of senior members of the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islami despite denials from the coalition. Sunnis also opposed the appointment of Bayan Jabar as Interior Minister because of his membership in SCIRI and have claimed that Abdul Walid's Wolf Brigade has also engaged in assassination campaign against Sunnis despite the absence of evidence.

• While it would hamstring the new Iraqi government to alienate these and other militias, maintaining their old command and control within the new Iraqi military and security forces only increases the chance that these units will continue to maintain ultimate allegiance to the Badr Corps or the Kurdish leadership rather than to Iraq as a whole. Thus, the new security forces could be divided by factionalism, decreasing their effectiveness and leading to their disintegration if Iraq does descend into a civil war.

Insurgent Pressure Towards Civil War

• While the successful January elections initially dealt a major blow to the insurgency, many of the post-election attacks have targeted Shi'ite clerics, politicians, civilians, and institutions, particularly attacks on key religious holidays like Ashura. While most Shi'ite leaders have resisted calls for collective reprisals or mobilizing the peshmerga and the Badr Corps against Iraqi Sunnis, there have been incidents of Shi'ite-on-Sunni violence.

• Shi'ite schisms remain possible, as are sectarian or ethnic divisions. Moreover, few Iraqi Shi'ites forget that Muqtada al-Sadr is believed to have been responsible for the murder of al-Khoei just after the fall of Saddam Hussein and is alleged to have been behind the killing of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's brother Mohammed in August 2003. Shi'ite divisions could put burdens on the new Iraqi forces and paralyze or divide elements of the new government. It is not clear the al-Sadr and the other Shi'ite elements in the UIA will hold together or that other political splits will not occur before the end of 2005. Iraq must deal with drafting and approving a constitution and moving towards a general election by the end of the year without any clear picture of what leaders, parties, and power-sharing arrangements will emerge at the end of the process.

• The risk also exists that Kurds and Shi'ites might schism in ways that could lead to a civil war or that Shi'ites factions may soon begin retaliating more violently against the constant tide of Sunni bombings and attacks rather than seeking to draw Sunnis into the political process. Shi'ite leaders have avoided the temptation to lash out thus far, but the sectarian preaching in mosques is growing more polarized and popular tension is growing in the wake of attacks like the December 20 bombings in An Najaf and Karbala. Some Baathist and al-Qaeda insurgents are certain to continue to try to provoke a sectarian civil war using any means necessary no matter how costly or violent.

The Kurds and Other Minorities

• The Kurds represent a new faction that is now considerably more powerful in relations to their peers as well as in porportion to their 15% of the population. Iraqi security and stability depends on finding a power-sharing arrangement that gives the Kurds incentives to be part of the political process as much as it does Sunni Arabs. There are no basic political or economic reasons why such a compromise cannot be found, but Iraq has a long history of not making such compromises on a lasting basis and Saddam's legacy has left many areas where Kurds were forcibly expelled and their property given to Sunni Arabs.

• The two major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani, continue to retain large militias collectively known as peshmerga whose total strength is difficult to estimate and some elements are currently fighting alongside US forces, but the Iraqi Kurds could probably field and support an army of upwards of 10,000 fighters with varying levels of training and equipment.

• There are serious tensions between Iraqi Kurds, Turkmen, and Assyrian Christians, as well as between Kurds and Arabs. At a local level, there are many small tribal elements and long histories of tensions and feuds. Even if Iraq never divides along national fracture lines, some form of local or regional violence remains quite possible. Tensions between the Kurds, Arabs, and other minorities are particularly critical in major cities like Kirkuk and Mosul where the Kurds claim territory owned by other Iraqi ethnic groups, claiming that it had been seized from by Saddam Hussein during his anti-Kurdish campaigns from 1975-2003. Over 220,000 Kurds were driven from their homes by Saddam during this period and 120,000 Arabs imported to replace them. The Kurds see control of Kirkuk as their one chance to have control over a large portion of Iraqi oil reserves, but Kirkuk is currently 35% Kurd, 35% Arab, 26% Turkmen, and 4% other, making any attempt to consolidate Kurdish control of the city impossible save through violence. There has been some fighting between Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen, as well as struggles over "soft ethnic cleansing" in northern Iraq and many experts believe that the only reason Kirkuk has been relatively peaceful is due to both the presence of a representative government and the fact that the Kurds are not numerous enough to seize control of the city unilaterally.

• Kurds also face the problem that they have no control over Iraqi oil resources or revenues, access to any seaports, or lines of communication that are not to Iraqi, Turkish, or Iranian interdiction. They also have an uncertain economic future since the overthrow of Saddam ended the lucrative monopoly they enjoyed under the UN oil-for-food program and Iraq can now legally export oil as through Syria as easily as it can Turkey and there is far less incentive to smuggle oil through the Kurdish regions now that trade is possible across any Iraqi border.

• Iran, Syria, and Turkey continue to view any steps towards Iraqi Kurdish autonomy or independence as a threat due to the threat from their own Kurdish minorities.

• Kurdish unity has always been problematic and the KDP and the PUK have clashed on a number of occasions, including during the civil war from 1993-1995. PUK forces assumed control of Irbil in 1994, putting an end to the first attempt to create a unified Kurdish government that had begun in 1992, while the KDP allied itself with Saddam, who sent a full corps against the PUK enclave. Tens of thousands of Kurds and anti-Saddam activists fled the area and the US was not successful in brokering a settlement between the two Kurdish groups until 1998. The current KDP-PUK alliance has not unified the Kurdish regions of Iraq and political divisions could create future problems for both Kurdish political unity and any agreements on Kurdish autonomy.

• In the course of the struggle for control of Kirkuk, there are allegations that KDP and PUK members kidnapped hundreds of Iraqi Arabs and Turkmen, transporting them to prisons deep inside Kurdish territory. While most of these abductions took place in 2004, there appears to have been some attempt to revive the process after the January elections that solidified Kurdish control of the region. A State Department cable leaked in June 2005 claimed that the abducted were taken to prisons in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah run by Kurdish intelligence without the knowledge of the Iraqi ministries of Defense or the Interior, but sometimes with the knowledge of US commanders. The Kirkuk Emergency Services Unit, an elite Kirkuk police unit, was closely tied to most of the abductions and worked extensively with US forces, as did the Asayesh Kurdish intelligence service. Kirkuk governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa has denied allegations that either the police or the intelligence services were involved in any kidnappings, but the leaked State Department cable indicated that the US 116 Brigade Combat Team was aware of the practices and had told the Kurdish parties to stop.

• Kirkuk police chief General Turhan Yusuf Abdel Rahman has stated that 40% of the city's 6,120 officers probably participated in the abductions despite his orders, claiming that they obeyed the instructions of the KDP and PUK rather than that of the police. According to Abdel Rahman, provincial police director Sherko Shakir Hakim refused to retire as ordered by the central government when he learned that the KDP and PUK would back him if he continued to stay on. The major factions in Kirkuk agreed on a compromise civic government in June 2005, but the city remains at the center of possible future conflict.

• The various Kurdish problems are compounded by the rebirth of Kurdish insurgency in Turkey and Turkish pressure on the new Iraqi government to deny the the separatist PKK a sanctuary in northern Iraq, which the Turks sent several division-sized units into Iraq to fight during the era of Saddam Hussein. 6,000 PKK fighters were operating inside Iraq in early 2005, with another 2,000 across the border in Turkey. Moreover, Turkey views itself as the protector of Iraq's Turkmen minority and has pledged to protect it during its political battles with the Iraqi Kurds.

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Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with 'ICE' we’d know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person may even know their medical history."

I'd strongly recommend picking the number of someone who does, myself.

By adopting the ICE advice, your mobile phone will help the rescue services quickly contact a relative or friend – which could be vital in a life or death situation. It only takes a few seconds to do, and could easily help save your life. Simply select a new contact in your phone book, enter "ICE" and enter the number of the person you wish to be contacted in case of an emergency. For more than one contact name, use ICE1; ICE2, ICE3, etc.

If you have teens driving, spouses or parents that travel, loved ones with medical conditions, urge them to program their cell phones with an ICE number. Though it may never be used; it’s a common sense safety thing!

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IRAN REPORTS

• Surprise! Iran will resume nuclear enrichment “regardless of what proposals the European Union makes in the coming days to change its mind,” says Khatami. Three cheers for ‘negotiation’. If Iran persists, this is a clear indicator that Iran is close enough now to weapons-grade material that the facade of negotiations is no longer needed.
  
• The new rise of the IRGC: A Tipping Point for Tehran.

• Iran obtaining nuclear components from EU via South Korea.

IRAQ REPORTS

• Algerian diplomats killed by Zarqawi’s terrorists after abduction. Algeria confirms.

• Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dropped in on Iraq unannounced as the US urged Iraq to meet its Constitution deadline and General Casey suggested that substantial US troop reductions in Iraq could begin shortly after.
  
• Three card-carrying ‘Friends of Thar’ were captured in Baghdad. The three are suspected of being involved in recent bombings.

AFGHANISTAN REPORTS

• 50 Taliban killed earlier this week in ongoing operations since the launch of Operation Vigilance, which was aimed at preventing a Taliban/al Qaeda spring offensive. So well are things going for the Taliban, they have been reduced to conscripting children to fill their ranks.

• Mullah Omar sends a recorded message in an attempt to keep anti-US forces unified, urging them to focus on attacking Americans and leave civilians alone. That, of course, can wait until the public soccer stadium hangings, beheadings and dismemberments can begin again in earnest.

• Speaking of unity among Taliban loyalists, it seems the Arab 'Afghans' have named a new leader for themselves...an Egyptian.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Syria is again in the crosshairs as the US Congress is holding hearings regarding Syrian support for terrorists operating in Iraq, including the syphoning off of billions from the Oil-for-Food scam.

• Islamic Jihad fires more rockets into Israel.
  
• China Arms Sales continues to strain US-Israel relations.

• Previous Egyptian MP tyrade notwithstanding, it appears that in the wake of the Sharm al-Sheikh bombings, Egypt might just be coming around...and 'looking inward for answers'.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY

• There is now an official investigation in to Democrat Senators for leaking secret satellite systems information.

• Andrew Cochran notes, following an LA Times article, that al-Qaeda attempts to infiltrate the CIA, FBI et al is a given, and may well have succeeded.
  

AFRICA

• Mugabe treks to China where Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao “believes that mutual-beneficial cooperation and respect to each other's choice of developing mode are the foundation to further develop China-Zimbabwe ties.” Surely Wen meant Zimbabwe’s ‘devolving’ mode.

ASIA & AUSTRALIA

• A suicide pilot pre-9/11?

• Pakistan Journalist bombed at home, most likely for refusing to print provocative militant statements. Three have been detained in connection to bombing
  
• Pakistani government cracking down on militant Islamic clerics and their venomous sermons? 210 arrested in Punjab alone. 125 released after promises.

EUROPE

• A ‘school for suicide bombers’ has been found in the northern Italy province of Lombardy.

• Van Gogh murderer receives Life Sentence.
  
• Failed British bomber arrested…an immigrant from Somalia.

• Britain & France deport 40 Afghans in illegal immigration crackdown.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• It finally appears as if the voices of moderate Muslims are beginning to pierce the wall of silence. MEMRI has an excellent compilation of recent moderate Muslim voices from around the world, scolding Europe (particularly Britain) for allowing extremists to exploit European freedom and challenging Muslims to take control of their religion from extremists and terrorists. This is a very, very important read.

• Another important read is Donald Sensing's Islamism's War Against the West, a history of Arab terrorism.
• US naval forces arrived in Indonesia Monday to conduct joint operations under the CARAT program. They met Indonesian commanders on the island of Java.

• Gitmo troops berate Senators Kennedy and Akaka during ‘Gulag’ visit.

On a lighter note…Jane Fonda is about to take her vegetable oil burning bus on tour across America protesting...another war. Rumor has it that when it treks eastward from Los Angeles through the Midwest enroute, the bus will don a Greyhound Bus paint scheme and the ack-ack will be covered with a tarp. According to schedule, the tarp will be removed and the bus refitted with its original tie dye and peace symbol scheme somewhere just outside of Philadelphia.

(In the event the above was not much of a 'lighter note' for you and just made you angry all over again, this oughta make you feel better. Much better.)

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.

For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.

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Nearly ninety years ago, he began, British intelligence was divided on itself between two schools of thought. The first, propounded by the India desk of MI-6, was that Britain should support Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, who was extending his dominion westwards across the Arabian Peninsula after capturing Riyadh in 1901. The most prominent advocate of this line was John (later Abdullah) Philby, father of the famous British mole Kim Philby. A senior MI-6 operative, the younger Philby defected to the Soviet Union in 1963 when publicly revealed to have been a double agent for the KGB.

The second, propounded by the Egypt desk of MI-6, argued in favour of supporting Al-Sharif Hussein, who ruled Hijaz from Mecca, to ensure that he and not Ibn Saud would win the power struggle in the kingdom of the Arabs. The most prominent advocate of this line was T.E. Lawrence, immortalized in books and on film as Lawrence of Arabia.

If the second line had prevailed, my eccentric friend continued, Al-Sharif's descendant, the reigning Jordanian monarch Abdullah, would have today ruled over the Kingdom of Arabia, an area comprising what is now known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Had things worked out that way, Wahhabism would have been nipped in the bud and things would have been very different in the Arabian Peninsula.

However, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud's victory over his Hashemite rival and his successful takeover of most of the Arabian Peninsula, including the key cities of Najd and Hijaz, opened the door wide to the spread of Wahhabism. This extremist doctrine, based on the teachings of Ibn Taymeya, gained converts not only in the Arabian Peninsula but, thanks to petrodollars, throughout the world. Most of the Islamic centres and schools established in the last forty years in various parts of the world were built with a combination of Wahhabi zeal and an unlimited supply of oil money. Small wonder then that a serious student of Islamic jurisprudence will not find a trace of the Hanafi, Shafei or Malki doctrines or of the Shiite creed in these centres and schools.

After this lengthy expose, my eccentric friend proposed calling on British Intelligence to declare a period of mourning for its intelligence, which deserted it at such a crucial moment with consequences for the world at large.

Next - Part 5: What's In A Name?

For more of Tarek Heggy's writtings in English, please visit www.t-heggy-site-contents.org and for Tarek Heggy's writings in French please visit www.metransparent.com/authors/french/tarek_heggy.htm.

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• A special backgrounder from Foreign Affairs Magazine covering the threat and potential effects of a global pandemic.

• This letter to a city council member nicely summarizes the stakes. From the FluWiki, an excellent resource on the issue.

• The Washington Post notes that things are heating up - and not just in China.

• Here's a good blog: Effect Measure public health blog. Note the posts on the lack of antiviral, and the emerging situation in Indonesia.

• Recombinomics.com has an excellent round up of all flu
  news from a public health / genetics professional. Note how far along Avian flu is, and how ineffective the WHO has been. Posts lots of worrisome speculation about internal events in China, stuff that can't be confirmed but made more suspicious because of the utter lack of transparency maintained by the Chinese state.

• and of course, Bird Flu Report.

Eric concludes:

"The upshot: A pandemic can breakout any time now, especially as we move into the fall (weather changes and bird migration become more favorable to flu transmission). This is really urgent.

We are completely unprepared for a bird flu pandemic, with only enough antiviral drugs for 1% of the population. This has got to become a major concern of the blogosphere (since the traditional press does nothing more than rehash WHO statements), and must provoke some urgently needed planning!"

Eric's is a warning worth heeding, even amidst the threats posed by Islamofascism, nutter Kim Jong-Il and his Hitlerian Mordor-state, et. al. Here's hoping that people listen.

Fortunately, as Pundita noted:

"The drawback with pinning faith on planning [JK: as a mode of organization for society as a whole] is that one can't predict and control life, much less plan for life's surprises. So as messy as the free society is, it has the edge where it counts -- in the struggle for survival -- because a democracy allows for highly diverse input to government in response to new challenges. That increases the chance that an effective response can be quickly mustered to deal with life's surprises."

Let's hope. Perhaps the long-standing work of Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT, and the politician most likely to grok this stuff), and exercises like Dark Winter and its follow-ons, have taught folks a few things.

Will that be enough if avian flu gathers steam? Maybe not. There are major gaps in the system as it stands, and miles to go before we sleep the sleep of the truly prepared.

In many ways, a pandemic isn't really all that different from a major bioterrorism scenario. Winds recommendations #2-9 from my June 2002 Bioterror Readiness 10-Point Platform for Change still apply, for instance. So, unfortunately, do the comments in Bill Quick's bioterror readiness post re: why the USA isn't farther ahead in 2005. There's a lot of heavy lifting to do, in order to change that picture. We may not have that time.

If we really want to "plan" for a dynamic scenario like this and get a fast fix out there, there's a simpler way: don't depend on a huge, elaborate system, but on fast point defense and overlapping measures. Spend about $1 million, and ship copies of SimOutbreak to every key official all around the country. In a scenario like this, fast and informed local reaction will be worth hundreds of millions in backup infrastructure. Include law enforcement and first responders in the distribution - they'll probably be the first to see the signs. Have cities like my Toronto, hit hard by SARS, share plans and lessons learned.

Spend a bit of time following this yourself, on a personal level, and think about what your contingency plans might be re: your family. Spread the word. Write your representatives. Point out that the WHO is soft-pedaling this, and may fail entirely.

In other words, begin building little islands of understanding and capability. Eric says "start planning!" I say "Plan less. Experience and communicate more. Become a pack in motion, not a herd in wait."

Even so, I wouldn't neglect some of the larger structural issues. Especially the ones that are law-caused and so amenable to legal fixes. The U.S. lawsuit system, for instance (legal system is a misnomer), currently makes producing critical vaccines et. al. too risky and unappealing for many private companies. Y'all might want to fix that down there, quickly, as a fast first structural step. Before it fixes y'all instead.

Mark Helprin:

"A hundred years ago, our predecessors, unable to sense what had already begun, did not know the price they would pay as the century wore on. But, as the century wore on, that price was exacted without mercy."

Rarely can. Always is. There are always more things in heaven and earth, after all, than are dreamt of by Washington insiders - and some of 'em bite. The partisan warriors may or may not pay attention, even so. But we should.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But we have promises to keep.
And miles to go before we sleep,
And miles to go before we sleep.

UPDATE: More resources and a couple of encouraging (or sobering, YMMV) reports in the comments section.

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It's interesting to me; I've argued in the past that a form of constitutional patriotism is possibly the solvent for the "Bad Philosophy" that I believe enables terrorism - and particularly enables it among the disaffected young men who live in immigrant communities, and who are looking for something they can believe in in which they believe they can participate.

In America, things are somewhat different:

Salem Salamey is president of the Lebanese American Heritage Club, and a long-time resident of Dearborn. He says, "We have participated in the Memorial Day parade for the last 17 years. In fact, we are pretty close to beginning to lead that parade because every year we move up one slot. Of course, it's a day of commemorating the fallen Americans who fell in the line of duty defending our values, American values of liberty, justice, equality and democracy."

It's funny, but that parallels pretty closely what the Telegraph suggests as the ten core values of British identity:

I. The rule of law. Our society is based on the idea that we all abide by the same rules, whatever our wealth or status. No one is above the law - not even the government.

II. The sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament. The Lords, the Commons and the monarch constitute the supreme authority in the land. There is no appeal to any higher jurisdiction, spiritual or temporal.

III. The pluralist state. Equality before the law implies that no one should be treated differently on the basis of belonging to a particular group. Conversely, all parties, sects, faiths and ideologies must tolerate the existence of their rivals.

IV. Personal freedom. There should be a presumption, always and everywhere, against state coercion. We should tolerate eccentricity in others, almost to the point of lunacy, provided no one else is harmed.

V. Private property. Freedom must include the freedom to buy and sell without fear of confiscation, to transfer ownership, to sign contracts and have them enforced. Britain was quicker than most countries to recognise this and became, in consequence, one of the happiest and most prosperous nations on Earth.

VI. Institutions. British freedom and British character are immanent in British institutions. These are not, mostly, statutory bodies, but spring from the way free individuals regulate each other's conduct, and provide for their needs, without recourse to coercion.

VII. The family. Civic society depends on values being passed from generation to generation. Stable families are the essential ingredient of a stable society.

VIII. History. British children inherit a political culture, a set of specific legal rights and obligations, and a stupendous series of national achievements. They should be taught about these things.

IX. The English-speaking world. The atrocities of September 11, 2001, were not simply an attack on a foreign nation; they were an attack on the anglosphere - on all of us who believe in freedom, justice and the rule of law.

X. The British character. Shaped by and in turn shaping our national institutions is our character as a people: stubborn, stoical, indignant at injustice. "The Saxon," wrote Kipling, "never means anything seriously till he talks about justice and right."

Not for the first time, we have been slow - perhaps too slow - to wake up to the threat we face. Now is the time to "talk about justice and right", and to act on our words.

Interesting stuff. And of course, I can't get away without my daily N.Y. Times bash. From the Telegraph:

So what do foreign correspondents think of the British?

Sarah Lyall, of The New York Times, says: "It used to be about the stiff upper lip, cream teas and cricket, but all that changed after Princess Diana died. The British don't have an obvious set of values now other than their knack for self-depreciation."

Hmmm.

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"This conciliatory attitude is the natural outcome of a long history of tyranny and repression, evidenced at its worst in the brutal slaughter by the Caliphs of anyone who dared refuse their sovereignty (Yazid Ibn Muawya's murder of Al Hussein is a classic example) or sheer psychopathic bloodthirstiness (take Haroun Al Raschid's murder of his brother-in-law and all his relatives, or Al Maamoun's brutal violence towards anyone who opposed him even in philosophical issues). I tell you, my friends, hatred of the west is nothing more than hatred of progress in any form.

Progress is a phenomenon that belongs to humanity as a whole; it cannot be classified as eastern or western; as Muslim or Jewish or Christian; it is neither European nor Arab nor Chinese: it is the outcome of accumulated human endeavor. However, the driving force or catalyst that sets the process in motion is, at present, the West. Accordingly, a total rejection of the West is tantamount to a rejection of progress in all its forms.

I can understand that an over-imaginative Islamist might treasure the unfounded belief that he and his like could provide an alternative (while in actual fact he lives in a state of complete dependency on the fruits of western civilization), but for others to do so is beyond belief. My only explanation is rooted in psychological factors that I do not wish to enter into, to avoid causing further distress. I would simply like to remind you of our conversation a few days ago concerning our colleague H.T., whose only crime was that he was that he far excelled his peers, as you unanimously agreed."

Before we could say a word, my eccentric friend threw another question our way:

"What led the majority of rulers in our region to react the way they did towards the proposed reforms suggested by the Americans and the Europeans? Why on earth did they incite public opinion in their respective countries (needless to say, via their civil servants in the media) against these reforms? Only the Leftist writer Mohamed Salmawy was brave enough to say that he had read them and found no cause for concern. How could some rulers be so misguided?

Syria, for example, will eventually have to carry out the four things it was asked to do: close its borders with Iraq to would-be terrorists who enter Iraq via Syria; withdraw its army from Lebanon; expel Khaled Mashal and all leaders of Palestinian organizations similar to his; and refrain from using Hezbullah instead of the Syrian army, which we all know is happening. Syria will ultimately have to comply. So why do it in the future at a horrendous cost, when it can do so now within an agreement that is to its benefit? Later on, Syria will stand to lose rather than gain, and will be giving, not taking.

And why can't Yasser Arafat understand that he has no choice but to become an honorary leader of the Palestinians and let someone like Mahmoud Abou Mazen or Mohamed Rahlan take over the leadership of the Palestinian Administration, or else undoubtedly perish? He has two, and only two, options, yet he still cannot understand the provisions of today's world."

My eccentric friend paused for breath, took a sip of tea, and resumed his never-ending questions:

"Pray tell me, what exactly are the objectives of the satellite channel that I call Al Mareera ("the bitter" – my eccentric friend was, of course, referring to Al Jazeera)?

It is a weird mix of high technology coupled with a deliberate mental, intellectual and psychological assault on the minds of the Arab masses, whom I need hardly add are only too receptive to this insidious form of destructive ideology. This channel adds fuel to the fire on a daily basis, while implementing a deliberate, studied transformation of Osama Ben Laden and his accomplices, and of the Iraqi terrorists (who kill their fellow Iraqis along with Turks, Egyptians, and Pakistanis and who demand ransoms in return for setting their hostages free) into heroic figures! Yes, this Al Mareera channel actually portrays these villains as heroes!

A few days ago, one of their presenters, Jomana Namur, could not contain her gleeful joy as the screen showed a number of Palestinians dancing and passing round sweets on September 11, 2001, after they had heard of the destruction of the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York! How could the minds of the masses be left to the mercy of a presenter whose behavior may be likened to that of a savage wild cat driven by animal instincts and devoid of reason, logic or common sense?! This Jomana Namur is a typical personification of the savage, barbaric, tribal mindset that celebrated gleefully the day Anwar Sadat – indisputably the most sensible Arab ruler of the twentieth century – was brutally assassinated."

Before he left us, he flung one last question at us:

"Whom do you think will win the presidential elections in the United States in two months' time? Let me tell you now that George Bush will wipe out John Kerry with an overwhelming victory of at least 7% (a high percentage for the US), and all those who think and function under the same logic as Jomana Namur might as well know that they have another four years of frustration ahead of them! [JK: Well, he was half right - it was 3%, but their frustration certainly came to pass.]"

Next - Part 4: MI-6's Intelligence Failure

For more of Tarek Heggy's writtings in English, please visit www.t-heggy-site-contents.org and for Tarek Heggy's writings in French please visit www.metransparent.com/authors/french/tarek_heggy.htm.

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Athletic competitions are staged with the goal of achieving victory. By their very nature, they seek and honor champions, i.e., those select few who, in a given field, outdistance their brothers and sisters. The result of this policy is that sports reward exceptional achievement, not equality; they glorify the elite, not the ordinary; they celebrate towering heroes, not "the little guy."

Sports do not seek to "level the playing field" in an attempt to give a less-talented competitor a better chance of defeating a superior rival. Properly, there are no penalties imposed on a champion for being superior to his foes. Lance Armstrong, for example, is not required to heft a twenty pound weight up the steep ascents of the Pyrenees. Michael Jordan was not banned from springing skyward. The PGA does not require Tiger Woods to use an inferior brand of clubs. The only equality permitted is that every competitor gets the same opportunity to showcase his talents and determination.

With artificial handicaps or advantages eliminated, sports provide an undiluted example of the pursuit of excellence. In an era when the anti-hero is dominant in intellectual culture, sports provide the purest arena in which to pursue, observe and appreciate human aspiration, achievement and greatness. The reality of an athlete striving to hone his skills to the utmost -- enduring pain, overcoming injury, testing his mettle against the world's best -- provides a noble vision of man's potential.

Those of us who, physically, cannot cycle 2,000 miles or run the 100 meters in 9 seconds can still aspire to significant achievements. The vision of Armstrong's magnificent abilities and dauntless determination engenders in the best of us the questions: What might I accomplish in my field and in my life if I embodied the same degree of dedication? How high might I go in my own life-promoting endeavors if I put into them the identical indefatigable qualities of spirit that Armstrong does?

The motto of the Modern Olympic Games is: Citius, Altius, Fortius -- Swifter, Higher, Stronger. Lance Armstrong embodies these principles perfectly. A great athlete like Armstrong is inspiring, because he reminds us how much is possible to a human being. He is living proof that an individual can reach great attainments and that profuse exertion in pursuit of a daunting goal need not be fruitless.

Andrew Bernstein, Ph.D. in philosophy, is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

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My Eccentric Friend, Part 2: A Word in the Palestinian Ear

A friend recently bombarded me with the following questions:

"Why is it", he said, "that not one single writer in any Arab country has tried to envisage an alternative scenario to the one that transpired in 1948, to speculate on what would have happened if the Arabs had accepted the UN Partition Plan to divide Palestine into two separate states, one Arab (Palestine), the other Jewish (Israel)? How would events have played out if that had been the case? Has the choice our leaders made at the time fulfilled the prophecy of Ismail Sidki in 1947, when he warned that we would lose what was attainable while striving for the unattainable?"

No waiting for an answer, he proceeded to the next question:

"The Muslim Brothers have always been ardent proponents of armed resistance and were at the forefront of the call to arms in 1948. Why is it that eminent historians like Dr. Abdul Azeem Ramadan and Dr. Yunan Labib Rizk have never analyzed the armed movement launched by the Brothers in 1948 and the results it produced? Why are we not given access to the facts that must be taken into account when we hear them using the same logic today, why are we not told of the devastation their zeal has rained on our heads?

Before I could reply, he was already on his next question:

"Do you realize that if we succeed in restituting the Golan Heights, the Shaba Farms, the West Bank and Jerusalem we would only be recouping losses we suffered in the space of six dark days in June 1967? And even if we do manage to get our lost territories back, will we ever be able to undo the harmful effects these thirty-seven years have had on our region of the world?"

Again he did not give me a chance to answer before firing yet another question at me:

"Why has no writer or intellectual tried to explain what would have happened if the Palestinians and Syrians had accepted President Sadat’s invitation to join him in negotiating with Israel a quarter of a century ago? Or what would have happened if the results achieved in Taba forty months ago had been accepted by Arafat and the Palestinian leadership? Which is more advantageous, what Arafat refused at the time or the roadmap? And if what was on offer in Taba is better than what is now on offer under the roadmap, who should be held accountable for the lives lost, the losses incurred and the time wasted? Or is accountability a concept that is alien to the Arab world?"

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to launch myself into the murky waters his questions had stirred up but before I could formulate a response he was ready with his fifth question.

"What do you think, he said, of the following phased plan of action?

First: Convince Arafat to appoint Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as his Prime Minister and to delegate most of his powers to him.

Second: Have Arafat denounce the random use of violence by both Israelis and Palestinians, that is, the targeting of civilians by the two sides, explain to his people that the suicide bombings have led to a severe decline in the conditions and quality of life of both Israelis and Palestinians, and call on Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to halt attacks on civilians.

Third: Two or three weeks after these steps are implemented, have Arafat announce that he must go to Cairo for health reasons and name Abu Mazen as acting president during his absence, which could extend for as long as the treatment of his many ailments requires.

Fourth: Abu Mazen then resumes negotiations with the Israelis in the aim of implementing the roadmap and possibly even the agreements reached in Taba during the final days of Clinton’s presidency.

Fifth: Egypt would coordinate and supervise the plan and apprise Washington of all developments so that the US and Israel come to recognize not just that the peace plan is a purely Egyptian initiative but that only Egypt can push it through.

Sixth: As Palestinian-Israeli talks progress, Egypt announces that as soon as an agreement acceptable to both parties is achieved, it will use all the cultural and media tools at its disposal to lead the region towards a culture of peace."

As I was organizing my thoughts to comment on his proposed plan, he reminded me of an article I had written a few years ago on the culture of peace.

"You were attacked at the time", he said, "by the noted intellectual S.Y., but when the political leadership in Egypt had the foresight and wisdom to set up an organization for the express purpose of disseminating a culture of peace, the same intellectual remained prudently silent! Who knows, he might even become one of the main exponents of a culture of peace; after all, this would be quite in character for the breed of ‘bureaucratic intellectuals’ to which he belongs!

Can you conceive of a greater contradiction, in both philosophical and linguistic terms", he asked bitterly, than the one between the notion of ‘intellectual’ on the one hand and that of ‘bureaucrat’ on the other? Sartre summed up the role of the intelligentsia when he said that an intellectual must never become a ‘supporter’, that is, he must never become a bureaucrat."

My friend ended his impassioned tirade with a statement he never tires of repeating:

"Questions have eyes … answers are blind!"

Mr. Arafat is obviously better qualified than I am to respond to my friend’s questions. I would therefore hope that he gets to read this article and that he will graciously agree to reply to as many of these simple (!) questions as possible, as well as to yet another question my friend put to me a few days ago:

"The first Palestinian Intifada won the sympathy and admiration of the whole world because it did not resort to random violence against civilians. As to the present Intifada, while it does have its supporters it also has many detractors who deplore its use of violence against civilians. Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the current Intifada will produce better results than those which could have been achieved in January 2001, what will Arafat do with the strongmen who are flexing the muscles they developed in the period between September 2000 and the present day, and who are becoming increasingly ready to assert their political will over his, as they did at the Cairo meetings? What will Arafat do (after his big victory) with the genie he let out of the bottle, a genie as dangerous as the one Sadat released, with disastrous consequences, in the seventies of the last century? Or is this his legacy to the coming generations in Palestine and throughout the region?"

Next installment - Part 3: Rejecting Progress

For more of Tarek Heggy's writtings in English, please visit www.t-heggy-site-contents.org and for Tarek Heggy's writings in French please visit www.metransparent.com/authors/french/tarek_heggy.htm.

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Dan writes in the comments of this thread:

Dan may be right, or he may be wrong. But conclusive evidence either way? We lack that - at least in the public domain - in spades.

Ah, but do we? I don't think so and neither does Michael Scheuer, the man who once headed up the CIA's bin Laden unit. Regardless of one's opinion of his views on other issues, I think that we can definitely agree that Scheuer is in a position to know on these topics and one of the reasons he wrote Through Our Enemies' Eyes was to demonstrate to other CIA analysts the value of open-source information in intelligence analysis. Like its successor Imperial Hubris, Through Our Enemies' Eyes definitely supports the idea that there is an organized terror network, as does Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies if one desires another insider account. Other statements and court documents issued by European anti-terrorism judges as Baltasar Garzon and Jean-Louis Bruguiere likewise support this opinion. Newsweek even took the administration to task for assuming otherwise in an August 2004 article entitled "Like Clockwork" that includes the following statement:

But criminal charges outlined in a July 30 Swiss prosecutor’s report—obtained by NEWSWEEK—seem to confirm the worst fears of many U.S. counterterrorism officials: that, despite a concerted assault by Western intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, Osama bin Laden’s organization has maintained a resilient operational structure that has a global reach, even larger than had been previously suspected.

He continues:

Indeed, the very pattern suggested in the article is one of greater decentralization. Sending "emissaries" to suggest attacks and then leaving it to up local groups to autonomously plan attacks suggests exactly what the "dencentralization" advocates believe: that we are looking at connected but operationally autonomous cells.

Indeed, but the examples cited in the article include the following:

Saudi officials said the interrogation of terrorism suspects in that country, as well as intercepted electronic communications, show that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched cell organizers to Saudi Arabia in 2002 and weighed in on basic strategic decisions made by the local al Qaeda affiliate. The al Qaeda leadership also gave direct orders to attack specific targets in the kingdom, Saudi officials said.

That strikes me as the classic definition of command and control, at least as it applies to a terrorist organization. It's certainly pretty much the same as, say Meshaal has over Hamas cells in the West Bank or Gaza Strip or Mughniyeh has over the far-flung Hezbollah cells. Moreover, I don't see the idea of a decentralized network of autonomous terrorist cells as being at odds with the idea that there is an organized global terrorist network. Indeed, I will once again repeat Rohan Gunaratna's theorem of what al-Qaeda is:

Al Qaeda's organizational and operational infrastructure differs markedly from other guerrilla or terrorist groups ... Al Qaeda is also characterized by a broad-based ideology, a novel structure, a robust capacity for regeneration and a very diverse membership that cuts across ethnic, class and national boundaries. It is neither a single group nor a coalition of groups: it comprised a core base or bases in Afghanistan, satellite terrorist cells worldwide, a conglomerate of Islamist political parties, and other largely independent terrorist groups that it draws on for offensive actions and other responsibilities. Leaders of all the above are co-opted as and when necessary to serve as an integral part of Al Qaeda's high command, which is run via a vertical leadership structure that provides strategic direction and tactical support to its horizontal network of compartmentalized cells and associate organizations ...

... Al Qaeda's structure enables it to wield direct and indirect control over a potent, far-flung force. By issuing periodic pronouncements, speeches and writings, Osama indoctrinates, trains and controls a core inner group as well as inspiring and supporting peripheral cadres. In addition to exploiting Al Qaeda's relations with Islamist groups, parties and regimes, Osama also seeks to influence their thinking and behavior.

The constituent groups of Al Qaeda operate as a loose coalition, each with its own command, control and communication structures. The coalition has one unique characteristic to enhance its resilience and allows force to be multiplied in pursuit of a particular objective: whenever necessary, these groups interact or merge, cooperating ideologically, financially and technically.

To further advance the Islamist project, in 1998 Al Qaeda was reorganized into four distinct but interlinking entities. The first was a pyramidal structure to facilitate strategic and tactical direction; the second was a global terrorist network; the third was a base force for guerrilla warfare inside Afghanistan; and the fourth was a loose coalition of transnational terrorist and guerrilla groups.

I still think that's probably the best description of what the group is, though that's nowhere near short enough for sound byte in the Washington Post or the New York Times.

Dan then continues:

Finally, the nature of the evidence points out how difficult this guessing game is: in either a decentralized, franchised model or a centralized model we would expect to see actors with ties to the core al-Q leadership operating between autonomous cells.

Indeed, but those are analytical paradigms, each of which can be made to fit the evidence at hand depending on the amount of influence you want to attribute to the guys who are tied to or part of the core al-Qaeda leadership. That's quite different, however, from the analysis du jour that has appeared in the press of late in which al-Qaeda is described only in terms of ideology or brand name or Jason Burke's stated belief that bin Laden's followers are no more organized or directed than are Elvis fans. That's quite a different thing from arguing that al-Qaeda is either completely centralized or has splintered into relatively autonomous chunks, both of which as I said strike me as being eminently reasonable positions to hold to.

Dan then says:

But the "movement" position - which I've been championing - need not be placed so much at odds with the "centralized" model; the key, as I suggest, is that we would see broadly similar patterns of inter-movement connectivity. The question becomes how much that connectivity represents operational centralization and how much of it is an artifact of "small world" features of the al-Qaeda movement.

If this made any sense :-), I'd say the jury is still out. I actually think the decentralized model may be, in the long-term, more dangerous.

I agree that the two are not as opposed to one another as some have been arguing, though I disagree with the idea that a decentralized terror network is more dangerous than a centralized one. At this stage in human technology, you still need quite a bit resources and infrastructure to develop any kind of unconventional weapons capacity. A scattered, decentralized terror network may well prolong the number of terror attacks and be difficult, but it will never develop the kind of capacity for mass murder that, say, Aum Shinrikyo was planning for Tokyo during the 1990s. Moreover, a completely decentralized terror network removes the enemy's capacity to escalate the conflict or coordinate something on the order of 9/11 or even Bali. For instance, Jemaah Islamiyyah, which was far more centralized than its parent al-Qaeda network, has been reasonably effectively taken apart at the leadership level in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia over the years and you'll notice there's been nothing on par with Bali since then.

If al-Qaeda hasn't significantly mutated after Afghanistan, that implies that it remains vulnerable to decapitation and that it is not as likely to adapt if it is successfully decapitated.

I think it was insulated against decapitation in Afghanistan since at least 1998, which is why Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Hambali, and other key operatives were safely out of the country in the aftermath of 9/11. That said, it's certainly evolved since, with most of the training infrastructure being farmed out to the Lashkar-e-Taiba and a sizeable chunk of the leadership having sought refuge inside Iran. Separating the training facilities from the leadership provides even more redundancy to the global network, as does dispersing its training camps not only to Pakistan but also to Georgia, Somalia, the Philippines, and other countries. Still, someone is still paying for the infrastructure and all of these terrorist attacks are not simply springing forth through spontaneous generation, which I think is one of the strongest arguments for the idea that global direction, if not command and control is put in place. The information in the Milan wiretaps indicates that as of mid-2002 this was certainly the case and I don't think that enough damage has been inflicted against the network since as a means of altering that situation.

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I'll gladly echo Marc Cooper here:

What Stern proposes as an alternative may or may not be the right prescription. What we do know is that the current course of the AFL-CIO is not tenable. It’s stagnant, stalled and mostly a piggy bank for Democrats, many of whom don't give a damn about labor.

But he doesn't go nearly far enough. The paralyzing mutual embrace between Big Labor and the Democratic Party is a marriage that is awful for both parties...Labor, who is taken for granted by the Democratic leadership and ignored when real interests are at stake...and the Democrats, who are locked into a set of sclerotic positions by labor leaders who have a veto on candidates.

A wild and wooly time will surely follow, as new alignments, positions, and alliances are formed. That's good.

Because for the Democrats who insist on running an "Anyone But Bush" campaign in '08 forget that Bush won't be running, and they'll need a stronger reason for voters to support them.

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As Oppenheimer notes, there are alternatives to CAFTA:

It's not that Latin American countries lack a Plan B. Venezuela's self-proclaimed revolutionary President Hugo Chávez is more active than ever promoting his ''anti-imperialist'' Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). With huge oil profits in hand, and Brazil's regional leadership dampened by its ruling party's corruption scandals, Chávez is drawing the biggest headlines ever in Latin America.

In recent weeks, despite the fact that Venezuela's National Statistics Institute reported an 11 percent rise in the country's poverty during Chavez's first four years in office, Chávez has signed deals to create three regional oil companies -- Petrosur, Petrocaribe and Petroandina -- through which Venezuela will subsidize oil production and exports.

In addition, Chávez has recently vowed to purchase $500 million of Ecuador's foreign debt. He made similar promises to Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia.

Many of these deals come with strings attached. Venezuela's June 29 energy cooperation agreement with 12 Caribbean Community countries stipulates that its ''fundamental objective'' is to promote economic development ``based entirely on the principles for integration referred to as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

The vote this week in Congress on CAFTA will have far-reaching impacts, yet there has been relatively little public debate on the topic, with Republicans fearing political fallout over claims of job losses to cheaper Latin American labor and Democrats fearing exposure of their opposition to the one approach most likely to reduce poverty and promote stable democracy in the region.

(cross-posted to Random Probabilities)

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THE MIDDLE EAST

• The US warned that Al Qaeda was planning more attacks on Saudi.

• A Syrian official pointed out (correctly) that a disarmed Hezbollah would introduce a security threat for Syria.

• Al Qaeda has claimed credit for the Sharm el Shaykh bombing.

• Italy's parliament approved funding for its troops to remain in Iraq until the end of the year.

• Can it be said yet that Hamas and the PA are at open war? I think so.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• Famous last words.

• The LA Sheriff's Dept. sent a team to London to learn from the bombings there.

• A huge drug-smuggling tunnel was uncovered along the Canadian border.

• The President's Terror Threat Report will be streamlined into the Presidential Daily Brief.

• Some crazy guy tried to give a message from Allah to a church.

• The military's civil support joint task force is conducting a training simulation for a nuclear terrorism scenario in Virginia.

• The new Highway Bill controversially contains provisions requiring the states to use commercial data to authenticate the identities of applicants for CDLs.

• Who's watching NYC's underwater tunnels?

• The Minutemen movement is mushrooming nationwide.

• Terrorism-tainted Islamic groups CAIR and MPAC comically issued statements urging the Muslim community to be on the alert for radicals. Okay, so...they should call the FBI and complain about CAIR and MPAC?

• NYC subway passengers face random bag searches in a bid to deter or prevent attacks.

• Are America's Muslims integrating well?

• Vigilance in NJ hospitals is being intensified amid fears of "operational pre-surveillance" by suspicious individuals.

• Rep. Connie Mack got the House to pass a bill authorizing the US to broadcast alternative media into Chavez's repressive Venezuela.

• It emerged in the Al Aryan case that his home office received faxes praising terrorist operations.

• Two US Navy jets collided in mid-air in California. Two crewmen have been rescued and one is still missing.

AFRICA

• Kenya has arrested five on terrorism suspicions.

• Bill Clinton spoke out to Africans about their shameful silence on Mugabe's depradations.

ASIA

• Thai troops raided an Islamic school.

• A Briton in Pakistan who may be linked to the bombings was arrested.

• Indians are worried about Pak's nukes falling into jihadist hands.

• Looks like there's not much point in the Bush administration's attempt to play Vietnam off China.

• China is making its non-weapons military procurement a little less opaque.

• A cleric was found guilty of lesser charges and jailed for them for less than four years, but exonerated on bigger charges of complicity in the Australian embassy bombing in Indonesia.

EUROPE

• Strangely, phone-tap evidence is not admissible in court in the UK.

• The UN decided that Albanian institutions would run the Kosovo police services.

• The EU springs into action: they want to make explosives harder to get and easier to trace. I'm sure perfume will be exempt.

• Germany has ruled the Europe-wide arrest warrant unenforceable on persons in Germany, making the whole thing pointless.

• Did the KGB bomb buildings and blame it on Chechnya separatists? Take with two grains of salt.

• There are a quarter-million failed asylum seekers evading capture and deportation in the UK.

• Unsurprisingly, Al Qaeda's cop killer's appeal was turned down. Unsurprisingly, because his appeal appeared to have consisted of "they made a too-good case against me".

• UK police arrested a loyalist terrorist for questioning.

• The Moscow subway is getting cameras.

• Abu Qatada, Binnie's right hand man, is in danger of being extradited to Jordan after the UK made a deal with the monarchy on extradition of terrorist suspects. The deal is expected to be followed by other UK bilateral deals. Funny, all it took was a bunch of terrorist bombings in London. Dodgy clerics will also face other restrictions on their activities short of outright ejection.

• The UK has barred over 240 scientists from receiving training in its universities over terrorism concerns in the past four years, it has emerged.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• The terrorists are exporting cars from the US for use in terrorist operations, and US authorities are taking notice.

• A new crowd-control raygun is being criticized as unsafe. Not as unsafe as bullets, I'd wager.

• A man sought in the London bombings tried to set up an Al Qaeda training camp in Oregon.

• Zawahiri KGB-trained? Apparently so.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.

For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.

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REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• BlackFive reports how Pennsylvania Lt. Governor appeared uninvited at the funeral of Marine SSG Joseph Goodrich, handed out her business card, and informed the grieving family and friends that "their government was against the war."

• Ma Deuce Gunner hangs out in the Iraqi Police SWAT arms room - they can't seem to get rid of him now. Also, Security Watchtower provides a pictorial overview of the Iraqi Security Forces.

• Michael Yon brings us news from Mosul, where Deuce Four has removed a huge force multiplier from the terrorists operating in that area. Read Devil's Foyer.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• The World Bank plans to loan Iraq money for the first time since 1973.

• Here are some of this week's reconstruction highlights: In 2002, 1,043 malaria cases were reported, dropping to 307 during 2003 and only 86 cases in 2004. Work at Karbala’s Water Treatment Plant is 78% complete and is expected to be complete in September 2005. Contractors are rehabilitating a sewage trunkline in a poor, southeastern Baghdad neighborhood - the work will be completed by December 2005. The Community Action Program (CAP) completed two projects in the Marshlands areas near Basrah. Both projects targeted basic sources of livelihood in the area – fish and wheat production. CAP helped an Arbil Governorate community build four new classrooms and a soccer field at its primary school. The Higher Education and Development (HEAD) program in partnership with the University of Hawaii established a forage facility to assist agriculture students study animal nutrition at a university in Iraq. The Basic Education program is rebuilding water and sanitation facilities in 800 schools. An NGO serving the blind in southern Iraq conducted a two month train-the-trainer course for Braille instruction through an Iraq Transition Initiative (ITI) grant that provided computers, electrical equipment, stipends and transportation. TOTAL USAID ASSISTANCE TO IRAQ FROM 2003-July 2005 = $5,102,498,335

IRAQI POLITICS

• Iraq's constitutional commission has announced that the draft of the new Iraqi Constitution will be ready in two weeks. This body has worked under unimaginable circumstances - including several mortar attacks and the assassination of two of the Sunni delegates. The assassinations deconstruct to a large degree the argument that control of Iraq is strictly a Sunni vs. Shia struggle.

• Iraqi Sunnis are reportedly signaling a willingness to participate in the new Iraqi government.

• Peter W. Galbraith has been predicting civil war and advocating american withdrawal for a while, In this article, he explains some of the tensions and issues between Iraq's ethnic communities, and acknowledges hat the Sunni insurgency cannot win - but also notes that Iraq may need a different political structure to pull through. (Hat tip: JC)

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• The United States Treasury, under Executive Order 13315, has frozen the assets of Yasir Al-Tikriti, Omar Al-Tikriti, Ayman Al-Tikriti, Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, Bashar Al-Tikriti and Sa’d Al-Tikriti - the sons of Saddam Hussein’s half brother and former adviser Sabawi Al-Tikriti - for providing support to anti-Iraq operations.

ETCETERA

• Power Line has information about 3 moments in central Baghdad, when tens of thousands of Iraqis stood silent in over 130 Fahrenheit heat to commemorate victims of terror. Son of Two Rivers provides a condemnation of those who claim to be "brothers" to the Iraqi, but say nothing of this important event.

• Proud, New Papa Bill Roggio has information about the River War near the Syrian border. Bill notes the use of air strikes, not common at this stage in the war, during coalition operations to free this strategic town of anti-Iraq forces.

• Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!

• Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. And if you have a tip for a future Iraq Report, email us at MondayIraqReport(at)windsofchange.net.

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Hammes emphasizes Mao's theories of warfare, and places the Chinese revolution, the war in Vietnam, the Nicaraguan Sandinista revolution, the Intifada(s), and Al-Quaida in their context.

It's interesting to note that the London Times Book Review today reviews Jung Chang's biography of Mao, which contradicts several of Hammes' key assertions about the Chinese revolution (read the review, and I'll go through those in a separate post).

Mao's three phases, as set out in Hammes book are:

Phase I: The insurgents concentrate primarily on building political strength. Military action is limited to selected, politically motivated assassinations. Any other military action must have a propaganda purpose to cement the population's support of the insurgents.

Phase II: The insurgents gain strength and consolidate control of base areas. They begin to actively administer some portions of the contested area. And, because Mao had no outside sponsor supplying weapons [an assertion contradicted by Chang - Ed.], they conducted military operations both to capture arms and to wear down government forces.

Phase III: The insurgents commit regular forces (which have been carefully husbanded up to this point) in a final offensive against the government. This phase can only succeed if the "correlation of forces" has been shifted to the insurgents during the early phases.

Hammes' key point of course, is the one too often neglected in this age of the technology of war - that war is foremost a political act, and that political action is as important as military action in war that is less than existential...that is where the point is not to simply destroy one's opponent, wither because we cannot or choose not to.

He suggests that in every case mentioned above, that the winning side focused on the political battle - both within their own society, and within the society of their opponents.

Here's where it gets interesting as we talk about Iraq.

He makes a strong distinction between the first, more successful Intifada that led to Oslo, and the second, homicidally violent one that has failed the Palestinian people.

In every winning case, the political groundwork done by the winning side was based in a positive vision of the future; of a view toward a hopeful future that could be imagined by Chinese peasants, Palestinian shopkeepers, and Nicaraguan shopkeepers. Mao listed his "Six Principles" as a way of differentiating his forces from those of the Nationalist Chinese armies he was opposing [again note that Chang suggests that Mao was significantly brutal and abusive to peasants - Ed.].

Hammes says:

One final point is essential. It is difficult for a despot to effectively use 4GW as a strategic approach. Although many of the tactics and techniques of 4GW can be effective even for a dictator, the fundamental strength of 4GW lies in the idea or message that is the heart of the concept. Each successful 4GW practitioner - Mao, Ho, the Sandinistas, and the first Intifada leadership - had an underlying, appealing, unifying idea. Although in each case, the idea was abandoned upon victory [in the case of Mao, earlier, per Chang's book - Ed.], it does not change the requirement for an idea to drive 4GW warfare. Arafat has utterly failed to develop such a message. His approach to warfare cannot succeed.

(emphasis added)

The battle for Iraq will be determined by the relative strength of the ideas of each side.

In the case of Vietnam, there was a strong vision on one side - of an independent Vietnamese state.

In the case of Iraq, the strong vision ought to be on our side - freedom, prosperity, security.

But it has to be sold - even more than lived, as Mao, Ortega, and Ho proved - and we need to work harder to live it and sell it both.

There's a final point that he makes that I want us to take closely to heart:

Unfortunately, 4GW wars are long. The Chinese Communists fought for twenty-eight years (1921 - 49). The Vietnamese Communists fought for thirty years (1945 - 75). The Sandinistas fought for eighteen years (1961 - 79). The Palestinians have been resisting Israeli occupation for twenty-nine years so far (1975 - 2004). The Chechens have been fighting for more than ten years - this time...Accordingly, when getting involved in a 4GW fight, we should be planning for a decades-long commitment. From an American point of view, this may well be the single most important characteristic of 4GW.

In a 4GW, we can lose the war in a decisive battle - but we'll never win that way.

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I was going to post the same thing, but he summed it up perfectly...

Anyone running from armed cops who have challenged them first in London today should expect to get shot dead given the clear and present danger we are in... but that does not makes this any less of a horror. If Jean Charles de Menezes just reacted idiotically to the situation he found himself in, that does not mean we should feel distain for him.

I'm not sure when it became cool to run from cops - or to fight them once stopped.

I think it's a generally bad idea, and right now, in major cities, I'd say that it risks being suicidal. I took the train from Guildford to London and back; I've got dark skin, and was wearing the fleece vest I wear all the time.

When I got to the station, I made a point of taking it off, even thought it was cool. The last thing I needed was to be challenged by an anxious cop, or a stressed commuter.

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I looked at this question as a subscriber to The Baltimore Sun. While The Sun provides extensive coverage of local and state issues, it prides itself on its national and world reporting as well, maintaining its own Washington and foreign bureaus. Beyond wire service reports, it prints stories from other Tribune Company papers, notably The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Newsday.

What would diligent readers of my hometown paper have learned about the Plame/Rove scandal? Relying on online searches for an answer is risky, as the website carries articles that never make it into the paper paper. But Lexis/Nexis (subscription required) returns results that are identified by edition and page.

The starting point here is March 23, 2005. On that day, Victoria Toensing filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of 36 news organizations. Its purpose was to support efforts to quash the Court's subpoenas of NYT reporter Judith Miller and Time's Matthew Cooper. Probably because it's only online as a scanned PDF file, [Update 9/23/06: link rotted as of late 2005] the brief's contents haven't gotten much attention on the Web. It's worth quoting some of its text.

From the introduction, summarizing why the 36 news organizations believe the subpoenas are causeless (page ii/pdf 2):

In this case, there exists ample evidence on the public record to cast serious doubt as to whether a crime has even been committed under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in the investigation underlying the attempts to secure testimony from Miller and Cooper.

Specifics are provided starting on page 6 (pdf 30):

At the threshold, an agent whose identity has been revealed must truly be “covert” for there to be a violation of the Act. To the average observer, much less to the professional intelligence operative, Plame was not given the “deep cover” required of a covert agent… She worked at a desk job at CIA headquarters, where she could be seen traveling to and from, and active at, Langley. She had been residing in Washington – not stationed abroad – for a number of years. As discussed below, the CIA failed to take even its usual steps to prevent publication of her name.

Moreover, the government may have “publicly acknowledged or revealed” her intelligence relationship prior to publication of Novak’s July 14, 2003 column. “The United States has ‘revealed’ an intelligence relationship if it has disclosed information which names, or leads directly to the identification of … a covert agent.” S. Rep. 97-201, at 23. An article in The Washington Times indicated that Plame’s identity was compromised twice prior to Novak’s publication [footnote: Bill Gertz, “CIA officer named prior to column,” The Washington Times, July 23, 2004, at A4 (noting that a Moscow spy first disclosed Plame’s identity to Russia in the mid-1990s, and a more recent “inadvertent disclosure” stemming from references to Plame in “confidential documents sent by the CIA to the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana,” which was read by the Cubans] …

As a further means of ensuring the Act would not intrude into journalistic activity, Congress insisted that the government prove it was taking “affirmative measures” to conceal the covert agent’s identity. 50 U.S.C. s421. The prosecution cannot fulfill this element by proving the United States has “not publicly acknowledged or revealed” the covert relationship. S. Rep. 97-201, at 19. Similarly, the mere fact that an intelligence relationship appears in a [classified] document does not establish affirmative measures. Rather, this provision was “intended to confine the effect of the bill to relationships that are deliberately concealed by the United States,” an element that depends on the “facts and circumstances of each case.” S. Rep. 97-201, at 18-19 (emphasis added).

There are sufficient facts on the public record that cast considerable doubt as to whether the CIA took the necessary “affirmative measures” to conceal Plame’s identity. Indeed, these facts establish such sloppy tradecraft that, at a minimum, the CIA was indifferent to the compromise of her identity.

The following facts are public:

• The CIA sent a non-CIA employee, Joseph C. Wilson 4th, on a mission to Niger to determine whether Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase “uranium yellow cake,” an ingredient for making a non-conventional weapon.
• Wilson had not served in Niger for over two decades, and unlike his supposedly undercover wife, was not an expert in nuclear weapons.
• Wilson was not required to sign a confidentiality agreement about his mission.
• Wilson was not prevented by the CIA from writing his Op-Ed for The New York Times, an article that not only criticized the Administration, but also detailed his mission and findings.
• When columnist Novak contacted the CIA to verify that Plame worked for the Agency, he says that the Agency not only verified her employment but also failed to give him a serious request not to publish her name.
• The CIA’s usual procedure when it is concerned that publishing a fact would endanger a covert agent is to have a high ranking official, usually the director, contact the journalist and ask that information not be published.
• The CIA did not prevent Plame from making political contributions under the name “Wilson, Valerie E.,” facts that are publicly available at the FEC.

Novak’s column can be viewed as critical of CIA ineptitude: the Agency’s response to a request by the State Department and the Vice President’s office to verify whether a specific foreign intelligence report was accurate was to have “low level” bureaucrats make the decision to send a non-CIA employee (neither an expert on Niger nor on weapons of mass destruction) on this crucial mission at his wife’s suggestion. See also Wilson’s Op-Ed. Did no one at Langley think that Plame’s identity might be compromised if her spouse writes a nationally distributed Op-Ed piece discussing a foreign mission about a volatile political issue that focused on her subject matter expertise?

The public record provides ample evidence that the CIA was at least cavalier about, if not complicit in, the publishing of Plame’s name. Moreover, given Novak’s suggestion of CIA incompetence plus the resulting public uproar over Plame’s identity being revealed, the CIA had every incentive to dissemble by claiming it was “shocked, shocked” that leaking was going on, and thus made a routine request to the Justice Department to investigate.

[ Emphasis in original. Most footnotes omitted; The Washington Times article referenced in the included footnote is here. ]

The Ultimate Truth of the representations submitted to the Court is, in a sense, less interesting then the identities of the affiants who made them: thirty-six media organizations, including the parent company of The Baltimore Sun.

What have diligent Sun readers gleamed? From March 23 through July 24, the paper published fifteen pieces related to the Plame leak investigation (and 2 Letters).

Of the six News items and one News Analysis, five implied that the Bush White House had criminally or negligently outed Plame to columnist Novak; one gave that allegation as a claim being made (and one used ambiguous phrasing). None mentioned the affidavit's claims that Plame's cover was already blown, and that revealing her CIA connection could not be a crime.

Of the Sun's two Editorials, July 13's Come Clean stated:

[Rove used a] nasty tactic in any circumstances. But one that could have been dangerous, even deadly, in this case because it resulted in the outing of a CIA undercover agent... Ms. Plame was not identified by name; in fact, Mr. Rove has said he never knew her name. But revealing that Mr. Wilson was married to a CIA agent outed her just as effectively, and may well have endangered her. How revolting it is to hear the tortured parsing of words that passes for Mr. Rove's defense in the matter: that he never "named" Ms. Plame.

July 24's War Stories declaimed:

That July [2003] brought the article by Joseph C. Wilson IV, the diplomat and husband of Valerie Plame, in which he wrote that he had gone to Niger and reported back to Washington - a full year earlier - that the story was groundless. What this did was to demonstrate that the excitement over Iraq's supposed uranium purchases in the months leading up to the war wasn't a mistake, or an exaggeration. It was a lie.

This was Mr. Wilson's sin. The nuclear threat was the only justification for the urgency of war, and not only was it baseless but because of what he wrote, it was now clear that the architects of the war knew it was baseless.

Here is the motivation for the outing of Ms. Plame, a CIA agent. It appears that the White House was not intent so much on punishing Mr. Wilson as on discrediting him, by suggesting that his trip had been some sort of junket arranged by his wife. Mr. Wilson's revelation, if true, exposed the dishonesty at the core of the administration's maneuverings over Iraq. And of course it was true.

Neither Editorial mentioned the affidavit's claims that Plame's cover was already blown, and that revealing her CIA connection could not be a crime.

Of the Sun's six Op-Ed offerings, one repeated the claim that Rove or another Bush operative outed Plame; the other five implied that the assertion is true. Zero of six entertained the possibility that Plame's had already been outed, or that the Sun had subscribed to this idea in a recent court filing.

The Baltimore Sun has strong opinions about Joe Wilson the Truth-Teller, about Rove's exposure of Valerie Plame, and about the unfettered right of a Free Press to Protect its Sources. Surely, this bluest of Blue-State papers has the right to promote its views on its opinion pages. It would be a bit arch to be shocked, shocked that its biases are reflected in other sections as well.

Still, it would be refreshing if news--and the affidavit's contents are news--would be reported as such. And the editorial staff might do well to reflect on the ethical and practical limits of shielding readers from inconvenient facts. We are all tempted to do certain things, even knowing that we really oughtn't--or, ultimately, can't.

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As the Post summarizes:

The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East ...

But intelligence officials and terrorist experts said they suspect that bin Laden or his lieutenants may have sponsored both operations from afar, as well as other explosions that have killed hundreds of people in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Morocco since 2002. The hallmarks in each case: multiple bombings aimed at unguarded, civilian targets that are designed to scare Westerners and rattle the economy.

The officials and analysts also said the recent attacks indicate that the nerve center of the original al Qaeda network remains alive and well, despite the fact that many leaders have been killed or captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Bin Laden may be in hiding, the officials and analysts said, and much is still unknown about the network. But they added that his organization remains fully capable of orchestrating attacks worldwide by recruiting local groups to do its bidding.

And Gunaratna predicted all of this on pages 233-238 of the 2002 edition of his book for those of us who were paying attention.

I suspect that one could add more than a few attacks onto that list, but the point is that all of these sophisticated, well-planned terrorist attack do not just emerge via spontaneous generation. Nor are these simply the reactionary by-products of Muslim rage over Iraq as some have sought to paint them out as - like I said, these groups do not just appear out of thin air. The London bombers may well have been pissed over Iraq, but they would never have exploded if not for all the help from the Lashkar-e-Taiba infrastructure and training facilities that exist throughout Pakistan. TATP might well be easy to make, but somebody still taught the Leeds cell how to do it and convinced them that there'd be seventy virgins waiting for them if they killed a few dozen Britons. Most of all, somebody, in this case Haroon Rashid Aswat and his superiors, was giving the Leeds cell guidance and direction as far as what it was they blew up.

That, Professor Pape, is the reason why more than 50 Britons are now dead, far more so than any angry notions that Tanweer and his contemporaries had about the US occupation of Iraq.

And, proving that even a broken clock is right twice a day, Prince Turki gets it:

"All of these groups maintain a link of sort with bin Laden, either through Internet Web sites, or through messengers, or by going to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and maybe not necessarily meeting with bin Laden himself, but with his people.

"Since September 11, these people have continued to operate," he said, speaking at his residence here, where he has been serving as ambassador to Britain. "They are on the run, but they still act with impunity. They can produce their material and get it to the media, it seems, anytime they like. Along with that, of course, are the orders they give to their operatives, wherever they may be."

The State Department, sadly, doesn't:

In April, for example, the State Department concluded in its annual report on terrorist activity around the world that al Qaeda had been supplanted as the most worrisome threat by unaffiliated local groups of Islamic radicals acting on their own, without help from bin Laden or his aides. The pattern of attacks in 2004, the report stated, illustrates "what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism, one in which local groups inspired by al Qaeda organize and carry out attacks with little or no support or direction from al Qaeda itself."

Yep, just like all those communist groups in Europe and Latin America were just "inspired" by the USSR, right? Funny how all of them just happened to die out when the Kremlin stopped having a hammer and a sickle over it, isn't it?

Some regional Islamic radical groups function independently of al Qaeda but enter into mutual alliances for specific operations or campaigns, experts say. In Iraq, for instance, one of the primary networks of insurgents fighting the U.S. military is led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has pledged his loyalty to bin Laden and acts publicly on behalf of al Qaeda but has developed his own organization.

That's what's known in the trade as a "franchise." Zarqawi runs the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, while Haroon headed up a subset of it in Pakistan. Whoever pulled off the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings is involved with an Egyptian wing and so on all the way up to bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. Bin Laden's goal, at which he has largely succeeded, has always been to create "an organization of organizations" stretching across the entire Islamic world at his beck and call. Having separate if overlapping organizations also insulates both bin Laden and Zarqawi from putting all their eggs in one basket and means that either of them can continue to function even if the other is neutralized.

But intelligence officials and analysts from European and Arab countries say there is increasing evidence that several of the deadliest bombings against civilian targets in recent years can be traced back to suspected mid-level al Qaeda operatives acting on behalf of bin Laden and the network's leadership. In some cases, counterterrorism investigators have concluded that bin Laden or his emissaries set plans in motion to launch attacks and then left it up to local networks or cells to take care of the details.

I suspect that if you go back to the less deadlier attacks you'll find them there too, though perhaps not in as active a role.

"The rather well-formed structure that they had prior to 9/11 does seem to be degraded," said a senior British counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But there is still a fairly potent, if diffuse network out there that still aspires to make decisions. We should be very wary about writing them off."

Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few people did, claiming that the actual al-Qaeda leadership was a spent and degraded force with little if any capacity to mount major attacks. The explosions in the UK and Sharm el-Sheikh seem to have rattled the punditocracy free of that particular fallacy, at least until the obligatory short attention span starts kicking in.

Saudi officials said the interrogation of terrorism suspects in that country, as well as intercepted electronic communications, show that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched cell organizers to Saudi Arabia in 2002 and weighed in on basic strategic decisions made by the local al Qaeda affiliate. The al Qaeda leadership also gave direct orders to attack specific targets in the kingdom, Saudi officials said.

Saudi Arabia is rather near and dear to Osama's heart since he plans on ruling it in the coming Caliphate, so it makes sense that he would want to micro-manage there. The mention of electronic intercepts is quite interesting and just adds more credibility to Goss's views that we know or at least have a pretty good idea where he and al-Zawahiri are hiding.

The rest of the article then proceeds to trace back the ties between the al-Qaeda leadership and the bombings in Riyadh, Casablanca, and Madrid as well as being quite fairly critical of Pakistan for allowing its jihadi infrastructure to continue operating with a wink and a nod, but it misses the broader point that I suspect very few in Washington want to talk about.

We already know where a sizeable chunk of the leadership is.

The story from NBC Investigative Unit linked above ended on this bizarre note:

Most recently, there are reports in Iranian newspapers of the investigation proceeding and a comment by Saif a-Adel, the former military commander, in al-Quds, a radical London-based newspaper. Accompanying an article in which he praises Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was a note saying that al-Adel had “a lot of free time” to write.

That, say U.S. officials, is a good thing.

From the looks of what's happened in London and Sharm el-Sheikh, al-Adel's been doing a bit more than writing poetry in his spare time. For those who aren't already aware, he became al-Qaeda's military chief following the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and (among other things) is a former Egyptian special forces colonel and was one of the commanders on the ground fighting US troops in Somalia. As even Prince Turki seems to understand this much judging from his comments earlier in the article, which goes back to the same question that Radio Free Europe asked awhile back.

What is the al-Qaeda Management doing in Iran?

What, indeed.

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"WE DEFINE IDIOTARIANISM as the species of delusion within the moral community of mankind that gives aid and comfort to terrorists and tyrants operating outside it.

WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Left - the moral blindness that refuses to recognize that free markets, individual liberty, and experimental science have made the West a fundamentally better place than any culture in which jihad, ‘honor killings’, and female genital mutilation are daily practices approved by a stultifying religion.

WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Right - whether it manifests as head-in-the-sand isolationism or as a a Christian-chauvinist political agenda that echoes the religious absolutism of our enemies.

WE ARE MEMBERS OF A CIVILIZATION, and we hold that civilization to be worth defending. We have not sought war, but we will fight it to the end. We will fight for our civilization in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds."

A Moronic Convergence

Tim Blair's inspiration and Raymond's A.I.M. bring out a related dimension of that defense. Blair's quip was based on his belief that he was seeing growing commonalities of agenda, talking points, and even organizational activities between the anti-globalist and/or anti-American left, the isolationist and/or quasi-theocratic right, and what is sometimes called Islamofascism.

As Eric S. Raymond himself notes in the comments:

"I wrote the A.I.M. in direct response to someone's comment that all the world's most malignant political idiocies seemed to be coming together into one grand harmonic convergence of stupidity.... That comment started me thinking. I asked myself what, operationally, all the converging idiocies have in common. The answer seemed clear; they all believe that their Western opponents are so bad, so corrupt, that out-and-out tyrants or terrorists are actually preferable. The rest of the Manifesto unfolded from there."

Subsequent events would bear that insight out. This "moronic convergence" concept thus remains a part of the term's core usage, at least with respect to issues surrounding the Global War on Terror and the United States. Winds of Change.NET has dealt with that phenomenon often; see also the 2003 Foreign Policy Magazine article Antiglobalism's Jewish Problem and an article by Fred Siegel on the DNC for a number of concrete examples, or read Winds Hatred Rising topic archive as a whole.

Beyond The War

Our global war offers key cleavage moments the certainly serve to highlight the idiotarian concept, and clear-cut opportunities to "fight for our civilization." Nevertheless, the AIM galvanized a broad cross-section of bloggers who had previously come from a range of political backgrounds. Eric Raymond's comment below confirms that this was entirely intentional.

Indeed, the term "idiotarian" served to give shape to a new sensibility that wasn't exactly represented in either American political party - and really, still isn't.

Figures characterized as "idiotarian" by warbloggers have included Michael Moore, Bill Maher, Al Franken, Al Sharpton, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, Rachel Corrie and Jimmy Carter on the political left wing; Justin Raimondo, Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Lew Rockwell and Eric Margolis on the political right wing; and folks like Lyndon LaRouche. These figures hold wildly incompatible social and economic philosophies: anarchism, neo-marxism, left-liberalism, paleoconservatism, Christian fundamentalism, libertarianism and paleolibertarianism - but all hold the common quality of being perceived as unfriendly or questionably friendly to liberty. Many are also perceived by those using the term as deliberately reliant on shopworn dogmas rather than reason in their motivations and arguments.

The term "idiotarian" thus bears a distinct flavour of rationalist libertarianism, and though it seems to resonate most with those on the left and right who lean toward that persuasion, it is not confined to them. Again, as Eric Raymond notes:

"As some folks know, I have another life as a famous Internet geek. The A.I.M. fits a pattern; all my best work has been about eliciting the unconscious knowledge of communities. So, as with the Jargon File or "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" -- in a sense, I only channeled the A.I.M. It gets its power not from being an edifice of theory sprung out of my individual head, but from the extent to which it makes explicit themes that were previously only half-realized in a conversation taking place all around me."

Alea Iacta Est (The Die Is Cast)

As such, "Idiotarian" is perhaps best understood as a useful but pejorative political slogan or label, which means it can be both a tool and a subject of political debate.

Its usefulness seems proven by the fact that nothing with a comparable range of focus has ever caught on, despite attempts to replace the word. As Setting the World to Right noted:

"We don't see any option but to use it. For instance, although idiotarianism is predominantly associated with political parties of the left, 'idiotarian' is by no means synonymous with 'left-wing' or 'Democrat': one has only to consider the likes of Tom Lantos (or perhaps Tony Blair), or, on the right, Pat Buchanan or Matthew Parris. Likewise, idiotarianism usually involves, say, moral relativism, yet there are moral relativists who are anti-idiotarians, and there are people who believe in right and wrong but think that idiotarian policies are the morally right ones. The term "useful idiots," allegedly coined by Lenin, has a similar though narrower meaning, but it also has similar disadvantages; and the term "cicadas", coined by Oriana Fallaci, has gained little or no currency. So until someone tells us a better idea, we are going to have to live with the disadvantages of ‘idiotarian’."

So long as that's the case, the blogosphere needed a good explanation. We trust that this public service message has been helpful.

UPDATES:

• In another Winds thread, PD Shaw's "Idiotarian Rating Scale" is a useful contribution to the concept.

• Thanks for the comments, Eric - and by the way, folks, he's blogging again! I especially recommend Punishment, Coercion & Revenge.

• Pouncer has some insightful thoughts in the comments. Including this one: "Seems to me anybody serious about making progress in any direction, left or right, benefits from excluding self-demonstrated idiots from the process." The leftists whom Belmont Club highlights in Everybody Comes to Rick's appear to agree.

For more concept background....

• Why Idiotarianism? Why Now? looks at the common thread that brings the far left and Islamofascism together in more detail. Short version: their idols were broken, and they're united by the desire to shoot the same messenger.

• Anti-Globalization, Anti-Semetic, Anti-American. Adds some chilling examples highlighting the reality of the sharing going on between Islamist theocrats, neo-Nazis, and neo-Marxists. The Democratic Party's Fred Siegel has noticed, and so has Michael Totten as he reads his AdBusters. It ties into the patterns observed in "Hating America, Hating Israel" - ever hear the one about the 2 waiters...?

• Activism's Onanist Fantasy Ideology. Committed leftists critique the current strain of "activism as ritual worship," disengaged from any connection to actual results or much of anything except self-gratification. "Activistism" is definitely part of the cocktail, and the ritual worship parallels strengthen the "Why Idiotarianism..." thesis.

« ok, I'm done now

He says:

Reuters reports that Israel is expanding its colonial settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank even as it is planning to remove a few thousand settlers from Gaza.

We have seen these sorts of events many times in colonial history. The French colonists rioted in Algiers in January 1960 as it became clear that DeGaulle was moving toward granting Algerian demands. There were a million colonizers in Algeria then, and they had managed to grab up the best land, the most lucrative industries. The Algerian owners of the country had run out of patience with this colonial theft, however, and the colonists would not prevail. Had the French tried to remain in Algeria, it would have meant a 30 years war. The Western Right, so attached to the colonial project of dominating others and establishing racial and economic hierarchies, has been frustrated for decades by decolonization. But as the Israelis have learned, the costs of colonialism in the contemporary world are very great indeed, since contemporary populations are mobilized, connected by media, and savvy about using modern science to strike back at their torturers. You can have a colony to feel superior over, and to exploit, only at the cost of living your life in fear and being brutalized and driven toward a kind of fascist society. The only forces that really want such a fate are . . . fascists.

If you had the academic background I did - studying political theory and history in the early 1970's - this will be as familiar as a Led Zeppelin riff. Everything back then was viewed through the lens of colonialism - internal, external, economic, social, political. It was the aqua regia of political analysis.

And, in its moment - the postwar decades in which the old colonial order crumbled - it probably had some relevance. It probably has some utility today. But as a theoretical anchor in the modern era, it's just silly. It's like using epicycles to try and navigate a spaceship.

And worse, it has become the root of Bad Philosophy, which dissolves every relationship into a relationship of power - and which demands that power and violence be used to free the oppressed from the bonds of that power.

Sadly, those bonds are largely imagined.

But the destruction and pain caused by their release is very much real.

« ok, I'm done now

My roommates were downstairs. I thought I would get out of bed, but it wasn't easy. One side of my body was paralyzed, and the other half way useless. I don't know how long it took -- it seemed like eternity -- but I slowly crawled across the floor of the bedroom, outside to the corridor. Amazingly I somehow rolled downstairs. At some point my housemates noticed me, and I said one word: "Help."

Then I collapsed.

I later learned that my complexion was gray, and I looked like the living dead. We took a cab to the hospital, by now it was 9:00 or so. I was propped-up on a chair in the waiting room, and patiently waited my turn. I was called in and looked over by the nurse. I found myself in the hospital ward surrounded by concerned faces.

I had no medical insurance. This became known at one point when the attending physician suggested that I be sent home. But I was lucky. My death sentence was rescinded with a changing of the guard at the hospital. The new physician took one look at me and had me sent to San Francisco General, the county hospital. County hospitals are where the indigent cases go -- the uninsured and the uninsurable; the hard luck cases, and the druggies. And me.

For a number of days I descended into full paralysis. Even my hearing was going. Everything sounded like I had two long cans attached to my ears. I was cross-eyed and couldn't focus. I could hardly speak. I couldn't move, and found blinking laboriously difficult. I would keep my eyes shut just to leave them that way, to avoid blinking, and the harsh brightening lights. I remember being in a receiving ward with lots of beds and having to sign something. They put a pen in my hand, with the clipboard and form held beneath, and I just looked at it like it wasn't my hand. My dad was there, and I heard him say, "He can sign that. I'll do it."

After this point, I began to slip in and out of consciousness. There's only impressions of this phase left to me. I remember two nuns from Mother Teresa's order holding my still hands and praying. I remember my friends ringing my bed, wringing their hands. I remember weak smiles on their long faces; their attempts at comfort convinced me that I was dying. I remember a spinal tap; blood tests; the IV. I recall mystified doctors, having not a clue what was wrong with me.

But the most enduring memory of my illness haunts me the most. I think about it every day, not a few times. I have kept this largely to myself, so here's the revelation: Something about my condition of paralysis -- being the floating mind -- gave me the overwhelming impression that there was someone else inside of me. Like a dark force -- a presence. I felt like I had a living, breathing visitor within me. We didn't talk to each other, but I felt his gaze. It was a feeling like this 'Visitor' was there to take me somewhere. I have since imagined that the Visitor was a gatekeeper. I have no image of this individual other than an overwhelming, powerful feeling. I'll never forget it.

Feeding tubes down my nose. That damned catheter. "Bed logs" -- those rolls of towels to reposition my motionless body. The ICU sounds, made tinny. Feeling damp, cold, and dizzy. Feeling nothing.

The county hospital was a world of the ailing down-and-out. Among the druggies and homeless of 1992 San Francisco, there were a disproportionate number of AIDS patients at the county hospital. And because of that, a disproportionate number of immunologists. I remember I had about five of them poking and prodding at my numb body. They were professionals, and as such, my case was curiouser and curiouser. What was wrong with this fellow? I was tested for AIDS, spinal meningitis, tumors, even polio. It was none of those.

The miracle? Dr. Simon.

Eventually, one enterprising immunologist, Dr. Simon -- a name I will never forget -- had an idea. He did some fact checking, and conferred with his colleagues. I was facing an iron lung.

On July 21st 1992, Dr. Simon called a meeting with my parents. I wasn't there, but it probably went something like this, as it has since been reported to me:

"I think your son has an atypical case of Guillain-Barré Syndrome. I think he's rapidly declining, and we must act fast. I've read about an experimental treatment in Japan involving massive infusions of gammoglobulin. If I was you, I would authorize trying this technique."

My dad said to proceed.

Guillain-Barré causes a patient's defense system of antibodies and white blood cells to trigger into damaging the nerve insulating covering or myelin, leading to weakness and abnormal sensation. The causes of this illness are still unknown. Intravenous immunoglobulins somehow help offset the damage in some cases, though there are risks with this therapy.

In my case, the gammoglobulin did the trick. It took time, but the first improvement was my speech coming back. And then my hearing and eyesight. The longer the nerves from my cerebral cortex, the longer the recovery. Next came my hands, and better breathing. Last to recover were my legs and feet. It was like a slow recovery from cerebral palsy. During the recovery, the Visitor faded away, like he slipped out of a back door.

My recovery was considered fast, but for me, it was a slow process. My nerves came back, bit by bit. I can tell you that nerves do not turn back on without sensation. And that sensation is burning fire. For a while, I thought it was better when I was the floating brain in a numb body. That was relatively painless. But getting your nerves back? It's searing, constant pain -- all while having to learn to walk and move again.

So, July 21st is the day I went to the bottom of the cold sea. It's the day I almost slipped away, where the Visitor would've taken my hand and led me into oblivion. It was the quietest day of my life. Quiet like the grave under a starry winter sky. July 21st was also the beginning of my recovery. I'm convinced that a normal hospital might have misdiagnosed my illness. I am blessed.

Near death experiences change people. It changed me.

The fact is, I'm not fully recovered. You wouldn't know it if you knew me, because I make do. I'm well enough. I can tire easily, and I have storms of twitches and cramps. I've never felt the same, as though I was 100 years old once, and pulled out of it. But I came out of this experience renewed, with a fresh mission. I'll call it Cicero's Imperatives:

Living matters. Life matters. Adding something positive to the world is imperative. Do not squander life.

Everyday I ask myself: Am I wasting time? Is what I'm doing making a difference? Will it matter? Will it heal? Am I building something better?

You wouldn't believe the sad cases I met at the county hospital, and then at the recovery ward. I met lifers who had the most horrible stories you could imagine. Like the guy who was in a wheelchair, a hospital resident for 22 years. His brothers beat him up for botching up a drug deal in 1970. I also remember the church services on Sundays at the hospital, being interrupted multiple times by yells and groans. For all I know, people literally died during the service. I remember thinking, "I've got to walk, and get the hell out of here."

I'm walking. I got out the hell out of there.

I think our culture's survival and evolution is imperative. Right now I believe that finding common ground is the answer. But history is harsh; it doesn't always reward the righteous and the well-intentioned. Power ploughs the fields of history, it seems to me. There are abundant historical examples of how might makes right. I wonder if now we're betting the farm that right will make might. I hope it does, but you know history. No guarantees.

One thing I want to make sure I can add to this blog are Cicero's Imperatives. We must make a difference.

Sometimes, I think I have let down my end here. I'm not a historian, or an Arabic expert, or a military genius. I can't come up with half the witticisms that effortlessly flow from Mark Steyn's pen. I'm not a quick thinker -- my reasoning is slowly crafted, but well-considered. There's always room for doubt, and additional brooding. In the end, I'm just some guy who escaped death back in 1992. Everything since has been cream.

But I am seized by these restless, spiraling times. I've seen the world slip away before, into a haze. I've felt the cold breath of Darkness deep within me. Perhaps that was a sickness-induced delusion; but its grip on me is eternal. It left me yearning for warm places.

Blogs aren't always the warm places I would like them to be. And that's fine. There's a long way to go. I will keep asking questions, and looking for answers. It's great to be here, and to have made it this far.

And yes -- I still eat dim sum. But not the chicken feet.

« ok, I'm done now

7/7 Investigation

• The Times says the explosives used were TATP. The ingredients for the bombs match the recommended elements for an explosive device outlined in al-Qaeda documents found abandoned in the basements of houses in Kabul soon after the Taleban and their foreign terrorist acolytes fled the Afghan capital in November 2001.

• Shehzad Tanweer may have been recruited at a Pakistani madrassa run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, and with strong links to Jemaah Islamiyyah. One of the arrested Pakistanis is a Jaish-e-Mohammed bombmaker. One report says they think one person they've arrested is a senior A-Q terrorist linked to the bombing.

• The Daily Mail has reported there were enough explosives in the car found at Luton station for two more waves of attacks.

• Both British and Egyptian authorities believe that Magdy Elnashar, the biochemist being interrogated in Cairo, was not involved in the plot. Rather disturbingly, there was support in the press and amongst Egyptian lawmakers and judicial figures not to extradite him even if he was involved.

• The bombers used about £1000 worth of expensive perfume to create a napalm effect - a rather costly way to do it...

• Unsurpsingly, al-Qaeda front group al-Muhajiroun won't condemn the London bombings.

• Prime Minister Blair is planning a global conference on Islamism. He wants a task force, too.

IRAN

• The EU may be prepared to build nuclear reactors for Iran. Yes, really. More EU-3 talks on the way.

• A defector from Iran's nuclear establishment says the mullahs are 'close' to having the bomb.

• Are Iranian dissidents tracking and killing senior Iranian IRGC officers?

• Iran's police commander, an IRGC veteran, says police should use bullets against criminals. The next item should give some idea of what sort of person Iran considers a criminal...

• Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji's hunger strike has brought him near death, according to a report to a writer recently released from the same prison.

• Regime Change Iran's Tuesday Briefing.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Hamas and Fatah are shooting at each other in Gaza. A fair few injuries, and two fatalaties - bystanders, of course - reported within the last week. More here, including a report that Hamas took over part of northern Gaza.

• Hamas says the Kassams have brought about the pullout.

• A Hamas financing jihadist released by the Israelis has lashed out at the U.S. and Israel.

• The detention of four Muslim Brotherhood leaders has been extended.

• Egyptian reformist Saad Eddin Ibrahim says he has not given up on human rights in Egypt.

• Egypt wants more weapons from the U.S.. They want to build a naval base at El Arish, on the demilitarised Sinai peninsula.

• Speaking of which, PM Sharon has decided the Knesset should vote on the plan to put Egyptian troops on the Israeli border.

• The UN has called on Hezbollah to merge with the Lebanese army.

• Lebanon has a new cabinet. Hezbollah are in, Aoun is out. The U.S. won't deal with the Hezbollah minister.

• Lebanon's feud with Syria is heating up.

• Fatah and the PFLP clash at Ein el-Hilweh.

IRAQ AND THE GULF

• The Iraqi Bill of Rights.

• Violent demonstrations in Yemen against oil price hikes. 15 civilians reported shot dead thus far.

• The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh is warning of possible attacks after the seizure of a large cache of explosives.

• Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is warning that the slaughter of Iraqis by terrorists is a 'genocidal war'.

• Another Carnival of the Liberated. Khalid Jarrar, blogger of Tell Me a Secret, was arrested by the Iraqi secret service. Khalid has contacted his family and says he is okay. No word yet on why he was arrested. Samir Hassan isn't convinced Islamic traditions reject democracy.

• Egypt's envoy to Iraq may still be alive.

• Three Saudis held at Gitmo have been given to the Saudi authorities.

THE AMERICAS

• The U.S. has seized the assets of the A-Q-linked Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia.

• A palestinian 'lawmaker' has testified in the al-Arian trial that PIJ engages in various benign, social activities.

• San Francisco city officials are looking at plans to build a a bioterror isolation unit in San Francisco General Hospital.

• Chavez is mouthing off again. Never mind, though - he's so popular that dead people are voting for him.

• A New York Muslim group under federal investigation is actually part of Jama'at-i-Islami.

• Leading Democrats have voted against increased funding for Border Patrol officers and facilities for processing OTMs.

• There's a hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay.

• Bandar has resigned.

EUROPE

• Sarkozy says jihadi imams may lose their citizenship.

• Britain and Jordan have come to an arrangement which will allow Britain to deport Jordanian jihadis back to Jordan. That would include Abu Qatada.

• Mamoun Darkazanli, filmed with two 9/11 hijackers, has been freed due to a technicality.

• Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba are raising millions in the UK every year.

• The video shop that sold jihadist propaganda, and was frequent by the 7/7 bombers, was funded by the Lotto.

• Why do we not attack Sweden, Osama asks? A Swedish internet forum set up by an associate of Abu Hamza is full of calls for attacks on Sweden.

• Imad Yarkas, a 3/11 plotter and al-Qaeda leader, was attacked in prison. Good.

• A Basque newspaper known for its support of ETA attacks says there were no innocents killed in the London bombings.

• Islam Online says that Germany is considering putting CCTV in every single mosque.

• An Italian prosecutor wants six more Americans arrested for the kidnapping of a jihadist cleric in Milan two years ago.

• Meanwhile, Italian terror experts are taking the threats from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades seriously.

WEST ASIA & THE 'STANS

• Was the Turkey minibus bombing the PKK, or al-Qaeda? Also, the U.S. is said to have supported Turkish military operations against the PKK.

• A Chechen ambush has killed 15 people, most of whom were policemen.

• Pakistani forces have killed 17 Kazakh militants near the Afghan border. The group included women and teens.

• The Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who attacked the Ayodhya complex on July 5th have been identified. Is Delhi becoming a terrorist den?

• India's prime minister addressed Congress, and demanded tough action on terror - while warning against infringing on democracy.

• Afghan police have thwarted a rocket attack on a dam. Four Taliban were killed when a bomb they were planting exploded prematurely. A suicide bomber has killed himself in Herat, in a failed attempt to assassinate a police chief.

• Pakistani police have arrested about 200 Islamists across the country.

• A Hizbul Mujahideen carbomb outside a school in Kashmir killed three policemen and a civilian.

AUSTRALASIA & THE ORIENT

• A report in the South Korean press says that a Northern defector says the North has produced nuclear weapons, and tried to sell ballistic missiles to Taiwan.

• The U.S. is to allow Japan to produce PAC-3s. Joe has a closer look.

• Thailand and The Jihadis' New Map.

• B. Raman points out the link between the jihadi attacks in London and Thailand.

• Angry Muslims have attacked a Humiliating Giant Teapot in Malaysia.

• MILF 'rebels' have attacked Filipino military helicopters, in spite of a truce.

AFRICA

• Slavery, then and now - where are all the black slaves taken by Arabs?

• Kenyan authorities have arrested five Pakistanis for terror links.

• Sudan's ex-rebel vice president has dissolved his guerilla movement and dismissed all government officials in 10 southern states.

• Dan has excerpts from the ICG report on Somalia.

• An al-Qaeda group based in Mogadishu has taken over parts of Somalia.

• Five policemen have been shot dead by jihadis in Algeria.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.

« ok, I'm done now

Blair may or may not understand Islam. Here's what he does understand:

1. The winners write history;
2. History writes religion (religion shapes but also inevitably conforms to the people over time, not vice-versa);
3. Social pressure works.

What Blair is doing here is threefold:

• Setting up social expectations re: British Muslims that will pressure them to live up to them.

• Offering a psychological "out" that some British Muslims will accept and embrace as part of what their identity should be about (and for many outside the madrassas, it's not a big stretch).

• Creating a counter-narrative that, in concert with political and military pressure on the Arab/Islamic world, seeks to extend this "redefinition" of Islam more broadly. Some will do this from fear, other because they're tired of having some "bearded monster" (to use a term from Chan'ad Bahraini) dictate to them, and revolt against Islam's internal oppressors.

This becomes the current that accompanies Western efforts to kill most of the organized jihadi apparatus and strip it of its state sponsors; an effort that is undertaken in part to give this counter-current the literal breathing space to bloom. As Belmont Club put it: "unless the weeds are pruned the flowers will never grow, until we find ourselves alone at midnight in the Garden of Evil."

Tend the garden, on the other hand, and watch over the longer term as demand creates supply: Imams and religious influencers willing to align with the "religion of peace" group rather than being dissed in their own mosques. Thus begins the redifinition that eventually makes Tony right. Or so goes Plan A.

al-Qaeda themselves recognized these points in a recent Thurwat al Sinam article, and they seem to be concerned:

Of particular interest as a non-military based threat to the mujahideen is the creation of a "peaceful Islam" which has "nothing to do with the original religion" and is spread by "information media all over the earth" in the hopes that "the infidels will succeed in this which they could not do militarily."

That's a very simplified version, and there are significant obstacles both in geopolitical terms and in terms of defeating jihadi Islam's measures to preserve it as an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS - Hat Tip to Jinnderella). But let's leave those aside for a moment.

Blair's is a memetic strategy as part of a memetic war - one that hopes to act in the 'Golden Hour' before the War on Terror morphs into either The Islamic War or a WMD-driven "3 Conjectures" scenario. If it does not succeed, the technology curve - and especially the dual-use genetic/nano curve - means our window is about 30-40 years before "3 Conjectures" becomes living reality.

But no pressure.

Meanwhile, here's the interesting thing about memetic warfare. It's a sword that can only be held by the blade.

Precisely because it's designed as a counter-narrative rather than a clinical description, Blair's narrative (and Bush's, et. al.) is at variance with reality. That variance can play into both the appeasement/ co-belligerent strategy of internal Western enemies, and the second class dhimmi status Islam has traditionally forced on non-Muslims.

Perversely, therefore, this memetic strategy seems to require a strong minority undercurrent of Muslims to swallow it - and at least a strong minority of non-Muslims who will refuse to swallow it. By pointing out the manifest contradictions, they keep the social pressure high and prevent the memetic blade from amputating the hand of its wielder instead.

Welcome to World War Weird, folks. The day it stops being weird is the day to fear.

« ok, I'm done now

JK: There are lots of blogs out there discussing the War on Terror, and the MilBlog community providing reporting from the front lines. What unique element is worlddefensereview.com looking to add to that mix?

WTSJ: Well, we are not really a blog. We will certainly have a blog page with links to various blogs, and we're considering other ways we can highlight relevant blogs. But we're actually more of an e-zine – or an e-magazine – combining magazine-style commentary, exclusive interviews and features with some of the elements of a military/ defense website.

We also are not nearly where we want to be in terms of what we'll be offering our readers. But our plans are for World Defense Review to be a primary source for defense news and commentary unlike any other. In terms of unique: You'll see a combination of fresh new voices and those of seasoned professionals, all with varying perspectives and opinions because they'll be coming from different experiences.

JK: What do you think is the worst-reported aspect of the current global conflict? The worst-understood aspect by the general population?

WTSJ: There are two major problems with reporting military issues and global conflict in the current war on terror.

The first is - in the case of Iraq and even Afghanistan - it is very difficult to cover insurgent warfare thoroughly and accurately. It's not the reporters' fault. They are doing as much as they can. But most of the reporters in Iraq, for instance, are either hunkered down in "safe zones" or enclaves. They cover bombings after the fact, and a few are actually going out on patrols with specific units. But it's simply too dangerous to operate effectively as an independent reporter in Iraq.

Reporting war today is quite a bit different than it was in during the "offensive" phase of the war in the spring of 2003. Reporting was incredibly thorough and accurate then because the enemy was on the run in every sector that we had a troop presence, and all of the journalists were embedded with rapidly moving coalition units. They were eating the same chow, sleeping in the same holes, dodging the same bullets. They saw the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they reported it all.

Today, it's almost too dangerous to go out and cover something good like a school construction or a medical clinic being painted. If there's no military escort and you take a cab, you're liable to be sold by the cab driver to a handful of Zarqawi's headsmen.

So the majority of the coverage leans toward the negative. Yes, it's also certainly an issue of "if it bleeds, it leads." But more than that, it is a matter of areas being far too dangerous for effective reporting. So it is a freedom of movement problem.

The second problem is there are far too many reporters who are not doing their homework. I'm constantly reading stories where reporters simply don't understand the complexities of the military culture much less the organizations themselves. And how can a journalist effectively write about something if he or she doesn't understand what it really looks like or its function?

JK: Yeah, we've talked about that last bit on Winds. Glad you're trying to light a candle rather than curse the darkness. So... If you could have people walk away from your site really understanding just one thing, what would it be?

WTSJ: I hope readers will realize that one cannot develop an understanding about anything without taking a look at all points of view. Readers also need to understand that as information is now increasing almost exponentially, so to is the importance of having to understand that everything in the world is in some way connected to any flashpoint of conflict anywhere on the globe. So we hope to provide solid resources for education and understanding in that regard.

JK: What are you looking for in terms of contributors and articles? How should people who think they fit those criteria contact you?

WTSJ: First of all, a potential contributor must be able to write well. Like any national publication, we're looking for solid copy that is clean, concise, and clever without being cutesy or pretentious. Frankly, amateurs or non-published writers hoping to earn their first byline need not apply. But if someone has solid story idea, they should drop me a line at wtsjr, over here @reportingwar.com. We'll go from there.

JK: What are your long-term ambitions for the site? In a realistic world where you achieve your greatest goals for worlddefensereview.com, what would we be saying about it at the end of 2008?

WTSJ: That's a tough question because all things evolve in time. But it would be safe to say that I believe we will be the source of choice for a large, diverse readership looking to develop a greater understanding of global conflict and military/defense issues. We'll be a place for everyone: The high school or college student interested in developing his or her understanding of 21st Century armed conflict, the professional soldier, the policymaker, and the PhD researcher.

Read World Defense Review.

« ok, I'm done now

This isn't about the Rove / Novak talkfest. It's about what lies underneath it.

Take a look at Intel Dump today, and the post by Jon Holdaway over there. First of all, it's eminently unhysterical in tone.

But he summarizes the chronology about as well as I've seen it.

The story goes that Ambassador Joseph Wilson is assigned by the CIA, based on the recommendation of his wife, who works as a WMD analyst for the Agency, to go to Niger, where he had previous diplomatic contacts, and ascertain whether Saddam Hussein was looking for nuclear materials (specifically, Niger yellowcake).

Wilson comes back, briefs the CIA that Iraq had attempted to make commercial contacts with Niger officials, that Niger officials considered the contacts were for the subrosa purpose of purchasing yellowcake, and that they broke off contact due to the UN sanctions.

Pres. Bush, in his Jan 2003 State of the Union message states that Iraq is looking to purchase nuclear materials in Africa.

Next, we go to war in Iraq, with one of the reasons being that Iraq either was or had the intent of starting up a nuclear weapons program. Wilson writes an op-ed in the NY Times and states that the President lied because there was no evidence that Iraq was looking to buy nuclear materials in Niger. Robert Novak soon after quotes unnamed Administration sources who state that Wilson's wife works for the CIA and is the one who put him up to the trip. Wilson complains that his wife is a covert operator who's been outed in violation of the law, and the CIA asks the Justice Department to appoint a special investigator to look into whether someone broke the law and put one of their covert operators into danger.

Now here's my dumb question.

I've read the damn Senate Report, and read the citation of Wilson in which - as stated above, he says that he was told that Iraqis were in Niger, and that the person he talked to thought they were trying to buy uranium.

From Page 43:

The intelligence report indicated that former Nigerian President Ibrahaim Mayaki was unaware of any contracts that had been signed between Niger and any rogue states for the sale of yellowcake while he was Prime Minister (1997 - 1999) or Foreign Minister (1996 - 1997). Mayaki said that if there had been any such contract during his tenure, he would have been aware of it. Mayaki said, however, that in June 1999, [redacted] businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted "expanding commercial relations" to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales. The intelligence report also said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq."

So here's my problem. Bush was chastised for saying:

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Wilson claimed, both in his debrief (in the Senate Intelligence report it is stated that he said "there is nothing to the story" that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger).

So here's where I get stuck, and could genuinely use some help.

It looks to me like Iraq did make an attempt - at least a desultory one - to buy uranium.

That's what they were accused of.

Wilson, in his original oped, slams the Administration because

In September 2002, however, Niger re-emerged. The British government published a ''white paper'' asserting that Saddam Hussein and his unconventional arms posed an immediate danger. As evidence, the report cited Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium from an African country.

Then, in January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.

So I'm puzzled...it seems that the facts as he knew them supported the claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium.

So help me understand this gap. Too many smart people don't see it as a gap for me to just assume there is one.

Help a blogger out...

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There has been a lot of recent activity. Weapons purchases have been made, a Kongo-class AEGIS destroyer is contracted for conversion for dual use as air defense/ forward ABM defense via AEGIS upgrades and SM-3 missiles, agreements have been formalized re: ongoing ABM cooperation, and Japan has just made arrangements to license-produce the Patriot PAC-3 missile for point defense.

Realistically, this will represent a partial defense only. Realistically, the uncertainty it creates is enough to have deterrent value against neighbours like North Korea's mad dictator. With Co-operative Engagement Capability among AEGIS platforms that allows them to act as a single spaced array (think of a compound eye, or radio astronomy VLAs), and the ability to network them with new aerial systems like JLENS blimps and ground systems like the Patriot PAC-3, Japan's efforts represent an important start, an important contribution and test lab - and an important trend.

In 1998, China's proxy North Korea fired a hilariously-named "Nodong" ballistic missile over Japan and into the Pacific. Having seen first-hand what that could mean, the Japanese didn't think it was all that hilarious.

This year, China's manufactured anti-Japanese demonstrations raised further questions, even as a younger generation of politicians are beginning to make their influence felt in Japan's policy circles and are becoming more assertive vis-a-vis its traditionally dominant bureaucracy. Japan's China policy in particular is changing.

Japan is rethinking many things these days. There will be more rethinking to come.

« ok, I'm done now

Question #1: If a much smaller proportion of slaves over a much shorter period leads to the current black population of the United States, where is the black population of the Arab states today?

Question #2: What if Sudan isn't just a modern-day genocide (which includes organized slavery), but simply the latest epiode in a long-running genocidal campaign that stretches back centuries?

The eyewitness descriptions in the South African article are even more shocking and impactful. They're good reminders of what the African slave trade really meant in human terms, something we should all remember. They're also good reminders of the incredible historical accomplishments of the 18th and 19th century Abolitionists, whose proud history is also noted in "The Scourge of Slavery." A few dedicated people crusading in a just cause really can change the world.

The Abolitionists have modern heirs, and I'll come to them later. But that "where are the blacks of Araby?" question continues to haunt me with its implications.

Which brings me to the "now" portion of my post.

Christianity continues to grow very quickly in Africa and increasingly finds its members persecuted, murdered, and even enslaved by Islamists. Which means that this question and the issues it points to will begin to assume more relevance to our modern day as well.

I do not believe friendship caravans will arrest these trends - and they certainly will not make the historical issues go away.

As my piece on Islam, the Vatican and the Next Christianity notes, these trends will be important policy issues within the reign of this Pope - and they may be a central issue in the reign of his successor. But there is also a larger, entwined ethnic grievance whose accounting must eventually come due. As the South African article shows, these truths will be brought forward by African Christians under attack, thus entwining the two issues together.

With the Arab League backing Sudan even today in its practices of black genocide and slavery, the long-term potential for widespread friction and resentment along racial as well as religious lines is obvious.

Robin Burk noted in Religion, Terror & Our Future that "terrorism may be the least of the ways in which religious beliefs shape events around the world in this new century," and that may be true. In the realm of religious conflicts entwined with a sense of historical grievance, the Islamists may be surprised to discover that they will be one of the biggest targets as well as one of the biggest instigators. How Islam as a whole handles this moral and historical accounting will say a great deal about the maturity, ethics, and future of their religion.

For more on modern day slavery - which stretches way beyond the issues related to Islam in Africa - have a look at my September 2003 piece entitled Slavery in the 21st Century. It describes many of the modern forms of slavery around the world, and also includes resources and links to organizations that are making a difference.

Some things are simply wrong. Period. Slavery is one of them, and we too will be held to account for our performance here, in our day.

Join a very proud tradition - and help make a difference.

UPDATE: See secular Muslim Zack Ajmal's Islam, Women & Slavery for a look into some of the present-day debates on the subject within the Islamic ummah. A quick discussion of labels like "modernists, neo-revivalists and traditionalists" can be found via The Head Heeb's Islamic Citizenship Revisited.

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SOCIETY:

• According to the latest survey conducted by the Euphrates Development and Strategic Studies Center in provinces of Karbala, Najaf, Babel and Baghdad, while the opinion is almost evenly split on the question whether the constitution drafting process will finish on time, 53% of those polled thought the performance of the presidency council acceptable, 20% considered it as very acceptable, and only 26% thought it unacceptable. 51% of respondents trust the government to some extent, 21% have very strong trust in it, while 27% of surveyed do not trust it at all.
  


• The constitution drafting process is progressing well:
  

  Although Iraqi lawmakers acknowledge that drafting a permanent constitution is one of the biggest challenges facing the country, the team charged with producing the document are cautiously optimistic that they will complete the job on time.

  Lawmakers are up against an August 15 deadline to finish writing the constitution, a daunting task considering the disputes that have taken place so far even over who should sit on then 55-member drafting committee.

  The drafting team now has to grapple with the controversial issues of federalism, the role of Islam in governance and the status of oil-rich Kirkuk.

  “We hope that, God willing, things will go well and we’ll finish our work on time, particularly if we deal with the thorny issues in a way that satisfies all parties,” said Humam Hammoodi, head of the Constitutional Drafting Committee and a member of the ruling United Iraqi Alliance.

  The committee, which was formed in mid-May, now meets every week and has divided into five groups each dealing with a different topic: the basic principles of the constitution, rights and liberties, laws and the formation of the state, federalism, and final principles.

  “There are differing viewpoints among committee members, but this doesn’t mean there is no agreement at all among them,” said Sadi al-Barzinji, a committee member from the Kurdish Alliance. “Whatever the differences, they can be solved through democratic dialogue.”

• As another story reports, "Humam Hamoudi, head of the committee to draft the constitution, said rapid and intensive meetings are underway with Sunni Arabs regarding possible disagreements. The meetings are meant to prevent a delay in the drafting of the constitution. He added the draft will be done with by August 1, as was decided earlier. He said they have agreed on many issues but there are still some contentious points, like federalism and the authority granted to the region's rulers." The Shia establishment is onboard too: "Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has arrived in Najaf to meet top clerics to discuss the status quo of Iraq and the drafting of the constitution. The clerics agreed upon having all the different Iraqi spectrums participating in the drafting of the constitution and the political process with out marginalizing any of them."
  


• But the constitution drafting process will soon involve consultation that goes well beyond the committee or even the National Assembly:
  

  Baha' Al-'Araji, a member of the constitution drafting committee told Al-Mada paper yesterday that there are going to be 5 spots in each Iraqi province where citizens can find designated boxes where they can put their opinions and suggestion as to the process of writing the constitution. Only Baghdad will be an exception due to its high population so there will be 5 spots in each main quarter in the capital. One million "suggestion forms" are planned to be distributed nationwide soon and there will be specialized teams to read, sort the received forms and prepare summaries that will eventually be submitted periodically to the main committee.
  He also mentioned-according to the paper-that the committee has already purchased air time on satellite channels and columns space on papers (ten in total) to publish/broadcast materials of value to constitutional education to help people get a better understanding of the process.

• You can also read this short vox populi from the Iraqi street about the new constitution.
  


• And there are other favorable signs for bigger future Sunni engagement in politics:
  

  Several Sunni Muslim clerics have prepared a decree calling on members of Iraq's disaffected Sunni Arab minority to vote in coming elections and participate in the writing of a new constitution, a prominent Sunni leader said...

  Adnan Dulaimi, who heads the Sunni Endowment, the government agency responsible for Sunni religious affairs, said the framers of the decree, or fatwa, would seek the support of other groups in the fractious Sunni community. If broadly embraced, Dulaimi and other Sunni leaders said,... the decree could pave the way to full political participation by a segment of Iraqi society that boycotted elections in January and has scant representation in the current government.

  The push for the fatwa, together with formal approval by Iraq's National Assembly on Monday of the addition of 15 Sunnis to the committee writing the new constitution, suggested that slow and often contentious efforts to bring Sunni Arabs into the political sphere were beginning to bear fruit.

• In another report: "Sunni clerics in Iraq are preparing to hold a general conference by the end of this week. The conference will include edicts to allow participations in the political process, the referendum on the constitution, and the coming elections. There will also be edicts that prohibit targeting the supreme election commission members in Baghdad and other provinces. The conference will ask all Iraqis to reject sectarianism and ethnicity and to stop targeting the clerics and men of thought, especially the Shia clerics."
  


• Meanwhile, in the National Assembly, free-ranging debates make it the first for the Middle East:
  

  Death or torture awaited members of the former rubber stamp parliament if they ever had the courage to criticize the former regime. Today the country’s elected deputies openly pour their wrath on government officials in open sessions which many Iraqis hail as harbinger of a new era.

  It was not surprising therefore to see the deputies adding the presence of U.S. troops in the country to their agenda this week as well as corruption in government ministries and terror attacks.

  “Iraq’s sovereignty is an issue of paramount importance … It is the responsibility of this assembly to take a decision whether to approve or reject the extension of the multinational forces in the country,” declared Abdulrahman al-Nuaimi.

  While the deputies freely discussed the pros and cons of the presence of U.S.-led troops in Iraq, there were no calls for their immediate withdrawal under current circumstances.

  More important for other deputies were issues related to the reports of massive corruption in government ranks and the escalating terror and insurgent activities in the country.

• As the new habits of debate and openness grow, Iraqi democracy also continues to benefit from increasing ties with overseas. For example, another two cities are becoming twinned:
  

  The IVC of Philadelphia announced today that it is participating in the U.S. Department of State's "Partners for Peace" project with Mosul, Iraq.

  Through IVC, officials from Iraq's third largest city will visit Philadelphia to learn about democratic governance. Committees in both countries will work to improve humanitarian conditions in Mosul.

  "The IVC of Philadelphia is eager to partner with Mosul's leaders and citizens to support their transition to a democratic society," said Nancy Gilboy, President of the IVC of Philadelphia. "We've spent 51 years administering democracy-building programs and the past eleven years working with the former Soviet Union. That experience means we can hit the ground running with Mosul. We have humanitarian aid waiting to be shipped and a committee of Iraqi-Americans and generous citizen diplomats ready to help. For years, citizens in the Philadelphia area have shared their professional expertise and opened their offices and homes to guests from emerging democracies. We now look forward to engaging them with this important Mosul partnership."

• The United Nations, meanwhile, is supporting Iraqi civil society:
  

  With 4,000 new non-governmental and civil society organizations (NGOs) mushrooming in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s one-party rule, the United Nations is holding a three-day workshop for some 30 Iraqi human rights defenders in Amman, capital of neighbouring Jordan. The workshop, from 27 to 29 June, seeks to strengthen the capacity of NGOs for advocacy work and human rights promotion at the national, regional and international levels, help to develop strategies for past, current and future human rights violations, and build a network for sharing information and developing collaboration.

• USAID is meanwhile supporting the development of better financial practices throughout Iraqi bureaucracy:
  

  To assist the Government of Iraq (GoI) to meet generally accepted standards in budget execution, USAID is working through partners under the Economic Governance II program to implement a state-of-the-art Financial Management Information System (FMIS) that will provide tools for federal financial management. Under Phase I of the project, 57 FMIS sites will be established at Ministries, spending agencies, and governorate treasuries by the end of June 2005. Under Phase II, a further 128 FMIS sites will be put in place. FMIS orientation and computer skills training courses have been completed at 55 out of 57 of the Phase I sites while hardware has been installed at 44 out of 57 sites. By June 30, it is anticipated that all equipment will be installed and tested at Phase I sites.

• And the Japan International Cooperation Agency has commenced statistics and economics training in Amman, Jordan, of employees of various ministries and government agencies. Jordanians themselves are conducting environmental awareness training for employees of several Iraqi ministries.
  


• Out in society, after decades of censorship, Iraqis re-discover the escape of books:
  

  In a narrow alley off Mutanabi Street, Baghdad's main book market, the Dar al-Bayan bookshop is full of dust and classics. Old men sip tea in the back and talk of times past, before dictatorship, when poets and intellectuals made life here bright.

  On the street outside, the new Iraq presses in. Card tables covered with computer manuals, cell phone booklets and how-to guides compete for space on the sidewalk. A vast array of religious books, banned under Saddam Hussein, pack the stalls.

  As Iraqis struggle to make sense of the chaos and violence that has consumed their lives over the past two years, books offer some solace.

  "Reality now is very strange," said Mufeed Jazaery, who was Iraq's culture minister in the recently departed interim government. "People are trying to put their feet on the ground, but they find themselves still hanging in the air. Is it quiet, or will there be another storm? Is it black or is it white? Is it moving, and if so, in which direction?"

  But as well as showing a changing Iraq, books also reveal a dividing line between those who grew up before the years of dictatorship - who reach for history texts to understand what has happened to their country - and younger Iraqis straining to find answers to more immediate questions about their lives in self-help and how-to books, romance and religious titles.

• "Chaos and violence" might have indeed "consumed" Iraqis' lives over the past two years, but prior to that their lives were hardly examples of normalcy. The difference is that back then they didn't even have books for consolation.
  


• In dealing with the legacy of the past and returning back to the Iraqi people some of their stolen national wealth:
  

  The 170 palaces of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein are to be turned into cultural centres, research institutes and libraries, Iraqi Culture Minister Nuri Farhan al-Rawi said...

  "We have already put an appropriate request to the American cultural attache," al-Rawi told delegates to a UNESCO conference on stolen and illegally exported cultural objects.

  At the present, most of Saddam's palaces are occupied by American and British soldiers of the occupation force in Iraq, al-Rawi said.

• And in another aspect of dealing with the past, "the Human Rights Committee in Baghdad province council of has established a Social Liability Fund to support the families of martyrs through designating a sum of 50,000 dinars for each family and 10,000 dinars for each child of the martyr families, who were executed during the former regime, in addition to the terror martyrs."
  


• In media news, "the first independent broadcast station in southern Iraq is on the air.
  

  Al Mirbad Radio hit the air waves on June 20, the BBC reported. “Welcome and Good morning, this is Al Mirbad Radio, a new voice for Southern Iraq,” were the first words broadcast by the station. The BBC World Service Trust, the British network’s charitable arm, built and established the station in Basra with funding from the U.K. government. In its efforts to develop more independent and skilled media, the trust also conducted training courses for 80 journalists earlier this year in Amman. The trust also trained a group of Iraqi engineers on installing and operating the station’s equipment.

• Meanwhile, BBC is gaining considerable audience throughout the country:
  

  BBC World Service is the biggest speech radio station in Iraq, according to new audience figures released.

  Weekly audiences in the country have increased to 3.3 million (22%) from 1.8 million weekly listeners (13% of the radio audience) last year - an increase of 1.5 million.

  The independent surveys also show that 43 per cent of opinion formers in Iraq listen every week.

  The increase follows the rapid establishment of BBC FM relays in key parts of the country, including of Baghdad, Mosul & Irbil, Kirkuk, Al-Nasirya, Basra, Al-Kut, Salahuddin and Al-Amara.

• And yes - reality TV finally made it to Iraq. And also yes - "May You See Prosperity and Deserve It", the show that follows a young couple in the run-up to their wedding is a huge hit. On a more serious level, read about the Italian contribution to restoring Iraq's cultural heritage.
  


• Lastly, improving security situation is having one unusual side-effect - it's getting easier to buy alcohol:
  

  Faisal Faris’ cart on al-Haifa Street looks like any other boiled beans stall, but it is actually a cover for a far more serious trading operation. A secret drawer hides Faris’ real commodity – alcohol...

  But even though they still cannot openly peddle their goods, alcohol sellers say business has been improving in the last few months.

  Faris said that Iraqis were buying more alcohol because the security situation in his area has improved, since Iraqi forces cracked down on the insurgents. Now that militant activity has died down, people are less afraid of being attacked if they are found to be drinking.

ECONOMY:

• America and Iraq are formalizing their economic ties with a view to even closer relations in the future:
  

  The United States and the U.S.-backed government in Iraq have signed a formal agreement aimed at boosting economic ties between the two countries, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Monday.

  The pact, which could lead to a free trade agreement between Washington and Baghdad, was signed during a meeting of the U.S.-Iraq Joint Commission on Reconstruction and Economic Development in Amman, Jordan.

  The trade and investment framework agreement, or TIFA, establishes a joint council to work on a wide range of commercial issues, USTR said.

• To help reform the economy, and to increase the flow of international aid, which has stalled in part because of the lack of such progress, the Iraqi government will be instituting a far reaching program of restructuring:
  

  War-torn Iraq is working to reduce state hand-outs that consume more than 80 per cent of its gross domestic product in its drive to qualify for debt relief and IMF support, the central bank's chief economist said.

  Mudhir Salih Kasim said in an interview Iraq is committed to phasing out subsidies built-up over decades as the oil-based economy became more centralised, especially under the rule of former president Saddam Hussein.

  "These levels are unheard of in the rest of the world. The government realises the issue is very sensitive and could spark uprisings," Kasim said yesterday, referring to the potential for popular unrest as subsidies especially on food, fuel and electricity, were reformed...

  "Iraq has agreed to restructure the subsidies system, not scrap it altogether, in meetings with donors and creditors. The reform will move the economy, even if there is no fall in the level of violence," he said...

  Iraq expanded hand-outs and subsidies to help people cope with crushing sanctions imposed by the United Nations from 1990-2003, which contributed to the economic collapse of the country with the world's second largest world reserves.

  This came on top of $120bn of debt mostly accumulated in the 1980s to finance an eight-year war with Iran.

• Part of any economic reform effort will be a program of privatization of state-owned enterprises. USAID is there to help, laying groundwork: "Officials are working on improving Iraq's private sector through legislation. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Private Sector Development (PSD) program staff recently met with six members of Iraq’s Legislative Committee on Privatization to discuss privatization experiences in other countries that might have relevance for Iraq and ways of moving forward in order to strengthen the private sector. As a result of the meeting, PSD project staff will continue to provide the Legislative Committee with support in developing model legislation that can serve as the basis of privatization in Iraq."
  


• Some privatization is already on the cards, as the government wants to reactivate government-owned factories, which constitute the bulk of Iraq's industry, but are currently laying idle:
  

  The Ministry of Industry and Minerals plans to privatize 10 major industries, according to Usama al-Najafi, the minister.

  “The ministry is prepared to turn 10 of the public sector companies over to mixed or private ownership,” he said.

  He said the companies’ Initial Public Offering will be announced soon through the Baghdad Stock Exchange.

  The public-owned companies include “two cement factories and pharmaceutical and iron and steel firms,” the minister said.

  If the privatization goes through it will be the first time for the pharmaceutical and cement industries to be transferred to private ownership.

• Meanwhile, the government will be spending $1 billion for the support of Iraq's reviving private sector. On a smaller, local scene: "The Karbala provincial council has decided to allow foreign companies to invest in Karbala according to special conditions or partnerships. Council spokesman Ghalib al-Dumi said approval has been granted for investment in the fields of oil, electricity, and the sewage system. The council has already made agreements with some companies."
  


• In banking news, 29 June saw the official launch of credit card in Iraq: "For the first time, we will have an Iraqi credit card, which is certain to increase trust between shopowners, creditors and customers, and to contribute to the development of banking in Iraq," said the director of the Central Bank of Iraq in the southern city of Basra, Zuhayr Ali Akbar." In other banking news, Al Rasheed bank is also now providing an option to customers of opening bank account in foreign currency. And two new private banks have been established recently:
  

  Al Mansur Investment Bank, with a capital 55billion dinars (about 38 million dollars), and Tigris and Euphrates Bank for Development and Investment, with a capital of 25 billion dinars (about 17 million dollars)... The announcement for the establishment of the two new banks comes a few days after the end of underwriting in two other private banks: Ashur International Bank and the Islamic National Bank, in which Iraqi investors and Arabs residing in the UAE have participated in establishing them, which gave them strength and increased the demand for underwriting in their shares.

• To further help along the reform of Iraqi banking sector, USAID is conducting workshops for the industry workers. USAID is supporting the development of Iraqi micro-finance industry through training of its professionals:
  

  The PSD program recently provided financial analysis training in Amman, Jordan to 26 middle- and senior-level managers from two organizations in Iraq’s emerging non-bank microfinance industry. By the end of the one-week course, attendees improved their skills in conducting financial analyses, preparing financial performance reports, and making recommendations to improve the financial performance of their organizations.

  The course was one of a series of training modules designed to move the organizations toward becoming sustainable non-bank credit, or microfinance, institutions that lend money to small businesses and farmers.

  A stronger, non-bank microfinance industry in Iraq will help empower thousands of poor families to better realize their potential through savings and credit programs for small enterprises.

• USAID is also assisting small businesses throughout Iraq in an effort to boost the country's private sector:
  

  The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) recently supported training events for Iraqi small and medium-sized enterprises and approved 14 small business grants... Recent training activities included sessions for 31 small businesses in the non-permissible areas of Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk; and trainings for 13 consultants in Baghdad who will provide business planning services to Iraqi companies for the purpose of accessing credit under the Iraqi Middle Market Development Fund (IMMDF) and other credit programs.

• And here are two success stories of Iraqi Stock Exchange: Warka Investment Bank, whose shares have increased in value by 287 percent in less than a couple of months, and Pepsi Baghdad.
  


• Speaking of soft drinks, that old symbol of American imperialism is coming to Iraq: after absence of 25 years, Coca Cola is opening a bottling factory in Iraq to supply the local market.
  


• In Baghdad, an old institution revives:
  

  After years of absence, Al Nahr Street in Baghdad is back to life and to the women, who never left it all their lives until the end of the 80s of the last century. This street has turned into wholesale markets, after the Iraqi families found it hard to visit it, due to the bad economic conditions. For those who do not know the street well, Al Nahr Street is also known as Al Nisa Street, or the street of beautiful girls, as the majority of its visitors are women for the fact that its stores are specialized in selling women's clothes and for its fame for having jewelry stores, gold and silver and other jewelry. Even if we have seen some men walking in this street, they are there to buy a gift or something for their wives or sisters.

• German journalist reports that the northern Iraq is thriving:
  

  Rashid Tahir Hassan’s office in the Kurdish Ministry of Finance resembles a small Kurdish memorial. On the wall behind his gigantic black desk hang two pictures of the legendary Kurdish fighter Mullah Mustafa Barzani in heavy gold frames; on the console underneath is a plate with his likeness. The room is adorned with photographs of Kurdish villages and the city of Erbil, the seat of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. Hassan himself seems to embody the Kurdish mentality. When he has something positive to say, he looks melancholy. "Since the Fall of Saddam Hussein the Kurds have been born again," said Rashid Tahir Hassan, lowering his eyelids and pausing. He takes a sip from his glass of tea and glances out the window. Then he adds, "We no longer live from one day to the next; for the first time in our history we are planning for the future."

  A glance out of the window of the Director General for Finance of the Kurdish regional government shows how far the future of Kurdistan has already flourished: around the Ministry of Finance, as in many places in the city, buildings are shooting up. Apartment buildings, offices, warehouses, it looks as if everywhere in Erbil is under construction...

  Travelling by car from Erbil to Suleimaniyah, it’s difficult to believe that this part of Iraq has anything to do with the country known from the TV news. While car bombs explode daily in Baghdad and new mass graves are discovered around the so-called Sunni Triangle, the Kurds are experiencing a regular boom. Not only is Erbil under construction, but also in Dukan new roads are springing up, and in many villages vacation homes are being built. The demand for home ownership and the wish for improvement in the infrastructure are so great that the cement factory in front of the gates of Suleimaniyah has been put back in operation.

  The clearest sign of the new boom in Kurdistan is the increase in salaries. Before the fall of Saddam Hussein a white collar worker earned 22,000 Iraqi dinar per month (around $148)--today 158,000, according to the Ministry of Finance. A clear sign of the upswing is the fact that Kurds have meanwhile become too expensive for some jobs. On the side of the road between Erbil and Suleimaniyah you discover tents with Iraqi and Chinese flags in honour of guest workers from China. Thirty-eight men from Beijing who speak neither English nor Kurdish nor Arabic are widening Kurdistan’s highway network. They sleep at night on cots in tents on the edge of the construction site. In Suleimaniyah you find more guest workers from their own country...

  In the streets of Suleimaniyah, not only is there more security than in Baghdad but also more freedom than in the southern part of the country. You see women with and without headscarves, you see them in black garments or in jeans with tight t-shirts, you see them openly drinking beer in the afternoons. In restaurants and on the streets you hear cell phones ringing, whose rings sound like pop versions of eastern music.

• Perhaps the most delicious irony comes from Nazar Kahailany, Kurdish dissident who was tortured under Saddam Hussein and fled to Germany 20 years ago: "We always believed that only communism would free us from Saddam Hussein. Now we’ve learned that we needed the Americans for that." Here's another report from the booming Suleymaniyah, this time from an Iraqi blogger Omar: "I have to admit that this is the highest rate of construction one can find in the whole country and the streets and market places were so busy and crowded especially in the late afternoon and early evening."
  


• A recent trade delegation to Great Britain from southern Iraq was also at pains to remind the world that the situation there is very different to what the news coverage suggests:
  

  The delegation included senior southern members of the Iraqi transitional government, politicians, lawyers and the editor of a newspaper in Basra.

  All wanted to stress that the image of Iraq as a place of almost daily atrocities was based around events in Baghdad.

  "People need to understand that Baghdad is hundreds of kilometres away and in the south there is peace, " said 'Abd al-Karim Mahmud Al-Muhammadawi.

  One of Iraq's leading freedom fighters, he battled against Saddam's Ba'athist regime from the southern marsh region for 17 years earning him the title of "lord of the marshes".

  Now he is a leading figure in the movement to re-establish southern Iraq as a commercial centre which capitalises on the region's wealth of oil reserves and a vast workforce.

  "We are ready to do business and we want people to come to Basra, see that it is a safe and stable place with huge resources," he said.

• The authorities have signed a contract with an American car company to produce 90 thousand sedans, 130 thousand pickups and 10 thousand 4-wheel-drive cars a year. Meanwhile the number of old used cars is steadily decreasing throughout Iraq in favor of new models.
  


• A new program is trying to bring back Iraqi expats and utilize their skills in new Iraq:
  

  The third Iraqis Rebuilding Iraq (IRI) candidate recently traveled to Baghdad to start his 12-month assignment as Director General for Government Communications at the Council of Ministers Secretariat.

  Al Asaadi came across the IRI program while he was searching the internet for possible job vacancies in Iraq through the different well-known recruitment agencies and channels, for he was an Iraqi expert interested in supporting his country by applying his expertise and skills to serve his fellow people.

  Al Asaadi said that the IRI program was the only program that looked for Iraqi experts to take assignments in Iraq, and it was the only program that stressed having expert Iraqi citizens living abroad to take up assignments through the support of the IRI program.

• More here.
  


• In oil news, despite constant sabotage, oil exports in June have increased slightly over the May figure. In the south, "workers in South Oil Company are continuing in erecting and operating modern technological equipments, which were contracted to be supplied by Italian and French companies, in the very significant Majnoun oil well. This participates in doubling the current production to 100 thousand barrels a day, within the first stage of the local investment of the well."
  


• A major expo in a few months' time will link Iraq's oil and gas sector with expertise and investment from major international industry players:
  

  A projected $ 35-40 billion (Dhs 128.55-146.92 billion) is up for grabs as contractors vie to participate in rebuilding the Iraqi oil sector.

  OGS 2005, the premier Arab Oil and Gas Show which is to be held from November 7 to 9, 2005, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre, is expected to be an important link between cutting-edge technology providers and investors in Iraq's resurgent Oil & Gas sector.

  In the 12th edition of its showing, OGS will provide companies with a platform to network and discuss business prospects, innovation and issues related to exploration, extraction, processing, storage, transportation and security in the oil and gas industry. "With investment in Oil & Gas infrastructure growing exponentially all across the GCC region, investors are increasingly on the look-out for technologies and services that provide the optimum combination of high return on investment and competitive edge in a dynamic global market-place.

• Iraqi authorities have also awarded their first tenders in a year to oil fields in Kirkuk, to ExxonMobil Corp., Total SA, Repsol YPF SA, and Tupras. Meanwhile, "eleven oil fields in southern Iraq, capable of boosting the country's production to three million barrels a day will soon be tendered to international investors." Says the oil ministry's spokesman, Asim Jihad, "We will seek foreign investments, that will allow us to develop our industry but without paving the way for foreign monopolies to take over."
  


• There is also increasing oil cooperation with foreign countries, for example Iran. And with Kuwait: "Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) intends to renew its contract with Iraqi authorities... The contract which includes supplying Iraq with oil products is expected to be renewed by Aug. 1."
  


• The U.S.-Iraq Joint Commission on Reconstruction and Economic Development has recently announced the development of the Iraq Oil Training Program, a $2 million training scheme for the Iraqi oil and gas sector. Says the Regional Director Carl Kress: "The IOTP is a significant step forward in supporting the modernization of Iraq’s oil industry, bringing together the U.S. public and private sectors to deliver the best available training in the oil and gas sector – for the benefit of the Iraqi people in the rebuilding of this vital sector... We expect USTDA’s investment in this project will be supplemented by substantial U.S. private sector and university resources, resulting in immediate and medium term training and capacity building benefits for the Ministry of Oil.”
  


• You can also read this story about the high-level debates about the future equitable management of Iraq's oil wealth.
  


• In comunication news,
  

  Iraq has announced that it will launch a bidding process for new mobile phone licences in July in London, five months before the licenses held by three main regional firms are set to expire.

  'We will announce the opening of the process of bidding for the new mobile licences for Iraq... by holding a conference in London July 21-22,' Iraqi National Communications and Media Commission chief Siyamend Othman said.

  Egypt's telecom giant Orascom controls Iraq's central region, while mobile phone operations for the south are managed by Atheer, a branch of the Kuwaiti firm MTC, and the north is in the hands of Asiacell, a consortium of Iraqi and Gulf firms.

• As the report says, "communication experts predict there will be 5 mln mobile phone users in Iraq within three years and 8 mln within 10 years."
  


• "Iraqna's staff members have been taken captive and harassed, its infrastructure sabotaged and its network constantly jammed during US military operations," says this report on Orascom's operation, yet the Egyptian-owned company has proven to be a success story:
  

  Iraqna's subscription fees are now as low as $17 compared with $70 a year ago, but service in certain areas goes down for days sometimes...

  The company, which started in the Baghdad area and expanded to central and western Iraq and the southern port city of Basra, reported revenues of $63 million in the first quarter of 2005, up 200% from the same period one year ago.

  Despite its problems, Iraqna's service has been popular in a country where mobile phones were virtually non-existent under ousted president Saddam Hussein...

  As it seeks to hold on to its Iraq franchise, Orascom has sponsored the national football team, supported universities, helped people rebuild homes destroyed in the violence and funded a charity started by Kadhim al-Sahir, Iraq's best known pop star.

• Orascom intends to invest $2.5 billion in the Iraqi telecommunications market.
  


• In other communications news, Iraq's state-owned telecommunications company is launching a new and improved long-distance and international call system. And Iraq is also regaining its rightful place in cyberspace:
  

  Iraq hopes to bolster its sovereignty by putting the country's official domain name on the Internet within weeks.

  "We hope to announce very soon the return of Iraq's domain name '.iq' back on the Internet," Iraqi National Communications and Media Commission chief Siyamend Othman said on the sidelines of a forum in Jordan on developing his war-scarred country.

  "We are at the final stages of negotiations for the return of '.iq' and we are quite optimistic that we can do so in the coming weeks," Othman added Tuesday.

  Iraq is negotiating to get its place in cyberspace with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international, non-profit organisation that is responsible for Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

  The former head of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer, asked ICANN in 2004 to take ownership of '.iq', which was initially registered several years ago.

  Business leaders in Iraq say the ability to create a presence on the Internet with websites ending in '.iq' will be a boost to commerce.

• In transport news, the Baghdad-Basra service commences successfully:
  

  Aboard Flight 15, over southern Iraq - The smiling flight attendants strode down the aisle of the Boeing 727 in crisp green uniforms, handing out cold cans of soda and pieces of cake.

  But it was more than just the food service, a throwback to another age of aviation, that brought a sense of relief to the passengers.

  Just minutes earlier, the plane had leveled off after a steep corkscrew ascent from Baghdad International Airport. It was cruising now at 23,000 feet. In one piece.

  No smoke trails from surface-to-air missiles, no rocket attacks, no mortar hits.

  "The flight will be good, God willing," Awadees Razoiam, 55, an oil geologist, said as he bit into his cake.

  Such is the scene aboard the Iraqi equivalent of the New York-to-Washington shuttle - a 55-minute hop between Baghdad and the southern oil city of Basra that costs $75 for a one-way coach ticket. The flight, begun this month, is the first domestic service operated by state-owned Iraqi Airways since the American-led invasion.

  There are no frequent-flier benefits and no free newspapers at the gate. But the flight allows quick and safe passage (relatively speaking) between the capital and the city at the heart of Iraq's economy, making it perhaps the most significant in-country transportation development since the war.

• And up north: "The Sulaimanyah International Airport, SIA, is ready to open, according to Kamaran Ahmed, supervisor of the SIA. Ahmed said that this week, the airport will receive the first experimental flight, which will be a plane flying in from Baghdad. After that flight, the airport will officially open. The first official flight will come from Jordan, carrying Planning Minister Barham Salih and Transportation Minister Salam al-Maliki."
  


• Meanwhile, on the ground: "On June 19, Iraqi workers finished construction on railroad stations in Balad and Baiji. These facilities will connect Salah al-Din with destinations throughout the provinces, bringing goods to customers and citizens in distant cities. Two important rail projects have already been completed in Kirkuk: the Kirkuk and al-Maraej stations have been rehabilitated. Throughout the rest of the nation, the Ministry of Transportation has more than 100 rail projects scheduled; 28 are currently being built, while 45 have been completed and are serving the people."
  


• USAID is assisting the growth of Iraqi agriculture through a variety of small scale projects around the country:
  

  - The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and USAID’s Agriculture Reconstruction and Development for Iraq (ARDI) program will repair two culverts in Babil Governorate that carry water underneath roadways to irrigate farmland. The efficient use of water and functioning irrigation systems are especially important in southern and central Iraq, where there is less rainfall...

  - Two media centers in northern Iraq are producing agricultural publications with funding from MOA and ARDI. Support for this activity is intended to increase the government’s capacity to produce high-quality publications that keep farmers apprised of best practices and issues in farming...

  - At a workshop in central Iraq, the MOA and ARDI recently launched a summer rice demonstration activity which could benefit thousand of farmers. During the event, specialists outlined challenges faced by Iraq’s rice farmers and explained how the new project will address these needs...

  - MOA/ARDI staff are also working to support apple farmers. An apple demonstration program, similar to the rice program, has designated several orchards around the country to demonstrate improved cultivation techniques.

RECONSTRUCTION:

• After suspending loans to Iraq in 1985, the Japanese authorities will be resuming the initiative, with a $3.5 billion for the reconstruction work, chiefly in water and electricity. Saudi Arabia will be extending soft loans worth $1 billion for reconstruction.
  


• The United Nations is transferring $200 million from the "oil-for-food"-financed weapons inspections account to the Development Fund for Iraq to help finance the reconstruction effort.
  


• The Ministry of Municipalities and Works has assigned 51 billion and 490 million dinars ($35 million) for administration and construction projects during the current year: "one billion and 750 thousand dinars [$1.16 million] were designated for tiling roads, 5 billions [$3.4 million] for asphalting in the provinces, a 1 billion and 600 million dinars [$1 million] for rehabilitating municipality buildings and departments and 850 million dinars [$0.5 million] for fulfilling the needs of the municipality departments of cleaning machinery... [and] 16.5 billion dinars [$11 million] to execute new commitments and finish former commitments."
  


• Japanese authorities, meanwhile, are building and rebuilding roads in Al-Muthanna province: $862,000 to repair roads in Samawah ("The aid will enable the Department to carry out long-term repair of the damaged roads and to accelerate repair work. In Samawah, reconstruction activities are proceeding in various fields such as roads and electricity. Speeding up road repair in Samawah is expected to improve the traffic situation including alleviating congestion and activating even further the social and economic activities of the Samawah citizens."), $842,837 for Ar-Rumaitha ("With this aid, which will repair roads in the most severely damaged areas in central Rumaitha (a total of 10.57 km), it is expected to contribute to improving the lives of Rumaitha citizens and the welfare and stability of the community."), and $706,000 for Mutawag Al-Chibashi Road ("The aid, which will conduct emergency repairs (asphalt paving) of a part of the road (about 6.7km), is expected to improve the lives of the people in areas surrounding the road and to contribute to building and stabilizing the local community."). Here's more on Japanese road projects in southern Iraq.
  


• In Baghdad, the authorities are completing another housing project:
  

  A state-run construction firm has completed 70% of a major housing project in Baghdad, the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction said.

  The project in Sabaa Abkar consists of 48 buildings and is expected to cost $5 million.

  The project covers an area of 72,500 square meters and includes a school, car parks and paved roads in addition to a 240-square meter market place.

  The project is one of several currently being implemented in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces.

• USAID's Community Action Program, meanwhile, is helping small communities around the country help improve their local infrastructure. Currently (link in PDF), the CAP is assisting in installing water pipe, a water pump and a generator, as well as repairing the electricity network to provide potable water for a community of 1,100, 100 km outside Baghdad; in building a sports and recreation center in Wasit governorate; and in repairing 3 km of road in a community outside Mosul.
  


• In new water and sanitation projects, good news for residents of one Baghdad district: "Reconstruction gained momentum in the Nissan district of eastern Baghdad, where major sewer and water projects broke ground in Kamaliya and Oubaidi. After completing a site survey, workers began on the project that ultimately will create a sewer network serving 8,870 homes in Kamaliya. The area has never had underground sewage lines and relies on slit trenches, which leads to sewage pooling in the streets. The project will cost about $27 million and will employ 600 local workers at peak construction times. As the sewer project takes shape, an existing water distribution system will be rehabilitated. About 5,435 homes are slated to receive connections to the water main."
  


• In the district of Abu Ghraib, a new water project costing $450,000 will provide reliable drinking water to 40,000 residents.
  


• Baghdad's municipal authorities are currently conducting talks in Jordan with the representatives of the World Bank regarding the allocation of a $65 million grant for eight major water infrastructure projects in the capital.
  


• And north of the capital: "On June 27, a water treatment project was finished in Kirkuk, which will provide 5,000 people from four villages with clean, potable water, while another began in the northwestern Ninewah province. Eight water projects are programmed for construction in Mosul, and 34 water projects are programmed nationwide. Seven of those are under way, and 18 are complete."
  


• In Diyala province, one USAID project has just been finished (link in PDF): "USAID’s work at water and waste water treatment plants in Ad Dujayl (Diyala Governorate) is complete and the facilities are now servicing the city’s 60,000 residents . Work at the water treatment plant was completed on May 26 and on February 27 at the waste water treatment plant. The new water treatment plant will ensure delivery of a safe dependable water supply to the city. Prior to the work, the water treatment plant operated well below capacity, providing only 33 percent of the potable water needed for the region."
  


• And this joint effort is aiming to improve personal and agricultural access to water in rural areas of Iraq:
  

  As part of efforts to improve the hydraulic infrastructure in Iraq's rural areas, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Agriculture Reconstruction and Development for Iraq (ARDI) program are set to begin repairs of some discharge regulators – devices that help to limit and direct the flow of water through irrigation canals.

  Improving the hydraulic system in Iraq is central to the MOA/ARDI mission of increasing agricultural production throughout the country.

  In the center and south of Iraq, agriculture relies heavily on irrigation. But unfortunately most canals, drainage and hydraulic structures have not been properly maintained or replaced since they were installed in the 1980s.

  As part of a new project recently approved by USAID, MOA/ARDI will commence repairs on a discharge regulator that provides water to 10,000 donums (2,500 hectares) of land in central Iraq’s Qadissiyah Governorate.

  The increased ability to control water amounts will positively affect the livelihoods of 1,050 farm families who rely on the agricultural production from the adjacent land as their major source of income. In total, more than 7,000 Iraqis will benefit.

• In electricity news, there will be more fuel for the power stations: "The ministry of oil is going to increase daily fuel supplies delivered to the ministry of electricity by 2 million liters to reach 4.5 million liters instead of the current 2.5 million liters of daily supplies. Officials from the ministry of electricity welcomed this step that will 'allow the ministry to operate some idle units and enable the production of an additional 1000 mega watts of electricity' and this will reflect positively on the amount of power available from the national grid." As Iraqi blogger Omar comments: "It's worth mentioning that the peak power production has reached the 5000 mega watts milestone earlier this month and it is planned to increase that amount to 6000 mega watts by the end of this months. I hope their plans are good enough to provide the electricity we need; we've tolerated 15 years of electricity shortages so far and I really don't mind waiting for another year or two if I'm sure that the guys in charge are really doing all they can to improve the situation."
  


• Meanwhile, work at USAID projects around the country continues:
  

  Work continues on the installation of the V-94 combustion gas turbine at the Taza Substation in Kirkuk... The project’s Scope of Work includes the design, manufacture, delivery, installation, testing, and commissioning of one V-64 Combustion Gas Turbine (65MW nominal rating) and one V-94 Combustion Gas Turbine (260MW). Combined, these will supply 325MW to the national grid. The plant’s gas pipeline has also been extended by 15 kilometers to connect to a fuel source. Finally, plant operation and maintenance staff will receive training... Work is continuing on the rehabilitation of two units at the Doura power plant in southern Baghdad. Although its four steam boilers and turbines are each rated at 160MW, all have been poorly maintained for many years, largely due to spare parts shortages. Its cooling systems are now severely damaged so its turbines can no longer be operated at full-load without risk of further damage from overheating. As a result, the plant has operated far below its full-load rating of 640MW.

• Another USAID project is now starting to benefit southern Baghdad: "The new expansion of a power plant in south Baghdad is now producing electricity. The first firing of one of the expansion’s two combustion turbines — Unit 1B — took place a day ahead of schedule. On June 16, engineers synchronized Unit 1B with the grid and established a base load of 95 megawatts (MW). This plant expansion is producing megawatts for the Iraqi power grid before the critical summer peak."
  


• Baghdad airport will, meanwhile, soon benefit from another project: "Work is nearing completion on a project that will allow Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) to achieve 100 percent electrical self-sufficiency. The BIAP electrical system has an generation output design range of 18 to 22.3 MW and consists of three 33kV power transformers, 11kV and 400 V distribution systems, five diesel generators, and numerous smaller emergency generators."
  


• The authorities are also launching a crackdown to restore the integrity of the electricity network, as many Iraqis are illegally connected to the grid and do not pay for the access.
  


• In the education sector, USAID continues to assist Iraqi schools (link in PDF):
  

  A total of 504,458 Secondary School Student Kits have been distributed to students in 2,244 secondary schools in Iraq. This initiative is being coordinated through Iraq’s Ministry of Education (MOE) which will coordinate distribution of the remaining 20,542 kits. Each kit contains 10 Arabic exercise books, one English exercise book, one drawing set, one lab notebook, 12 pencils, four pencil sharpeners, four erasers, a ruler, and a calculator... Ten thousand out of school Iraqi youth aged 12-18 will attend Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) schools beginning in the fall that will allow them to make up for two missed years of primary school in one year. ALP schools will be identified by each Department of Education and will receive special kits for classrooms, teachers and students. The program is being implemented by UNICEF with USAID support. Fifteen ALP resource persons are being trained this month in Amman; each will go on to train 17 trainers in each of the participating governorates. A total of 2,000 teachers country-wide will be trained to teach in the ALP schools, and 1,000 students will be enrolled in each participating governorate.

• Meanwhile, on the local level, "the ministry of education has designated a sum of 30 billion dinars [$20 million] to establish 40 new schools in Nainawa province... the current period would witness establishing 42 rural schools and demolishing 136 schools, built of clay, and replacing them with new schools. In addition, 72 suites would be added to a number of the schools of the villages and countryside in the province."
  


• In higher education, USAID's Higher Education and Development (HEAD) program, is linking American and Iraqi universities to provide Western resources and expertise in rebuilding Iraqi higher education system. In most recent initiatives (link in PDF):
  

  Health faculty members at Jackson State University (JSU) are developing curriculum and course materials that will be shared with two major Iraqi universities... The materials include a Comparative Health Systems course and comparative analyses of health systems in the U.S., UK, Canada, Iraq, Oman, and Egypt. Lectures, suggested reading lists, assignments and sample examinations are also included with course materials.

  Also under the JSU and the Mississippi Consortium for International Development partnership, seven faculty members - primarily doctors and engineers - from several major Iraqi medical education institutes received minigrants for Several laboratories and libraries are being refurbished and reequipped under the HEAD partnership with the University of Oklahoma (UO).

  Biology laboratory equipment was recently delivered to a Basrah university. A UO staff member will set up the equipment and train Iraqis on its use in June. Soil science, veterinary medicine and global mapping laboratories will be established at the five universities participating in the HEAD/UO partnership. UO recently established an advanced geography lab at a major Iraqi technical university which is being utilized by over 400 students, 100 of whom are women. At the new lab, students use modern GIS/GPS technologies to process satellite imagery to analyze changes in Iraq’s environment, climate and infrastructure. UO staff will be conducting workshops and instructing lab staff in the maintenance and use of the equipment and labolatories.

  UO has also refurbished university libraries including the internet computer center and library at the University of Babil which officially opened in May.

• The Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) and the Harvard University libraries will train Iraqi librarians, archivists and information professionals "in the current practices of archives and preservation, automation, collection development, curriculum development, digital libraries, management, reference and organization of knowledge."
  


• Meanwhile, the authorities have assigned additional 63 billion dinars ($43 million) for increased salaries for Iraqi academics. More here:
  

  The salary raise is good news for the university faculty whose members had to make ends meet with an average of 15,000 dinars a month (less than 10 dollars) under the former leader Saddam Hussein.

  The new raise will see salaries of faculty with the title of professor rising up to $1,000.

  It brings salaries at Iraqi universities close to those in neighboring Jordan, so far a magnet for the country’s brain drain.

  Iraq has the highest percentage of people with higher degrees in the Middle East. According to official statistics the proportion of people with Ph.D.s in Iraq is higher even than in advanced countries.

  Iraqi universities run their own post-graduate programs and 390 doctoral candidates are expected to join the University of Baghdad alone this year. There are 12 universities in the country running their own Ph.D. studies.

• In health news, Iraqi doctors are about to be offered greater incentives and rewards:
  

  The Iraqi Ministry of Health (MoH) announced this week that they are going to respond to a request from doctors to increase their salaries.

  "Doctors in Iraq are still receiving insufficient salaries and their work should be respected. We expect that in the coming month their salaries will be raised according to their positions," Jalil al-Shummary, deputy ministry of health, said.

  Under Saddam Hussein's regime, doctors in Iraq received less than US $ 20 per month. After the war that ousted him in 2003, salary increases of up to $ 200 per month were awarded to doctors. The health ministry now hopes to offer further increments of up to 200 percent.

• The World Health Organisation is providing supplies and equipment for various areas of Iraqi health system:
  

  As of mid-June 2005, laboratory equipment, reagents/kits and consumables valued at US$1.87 million have been received in Amman, out of which US$1.5 million have delivered to the Ministry of Health Nutrition Research Institute Food Control Laboratory in Baghdad... Three truck loads of diagnostic kits, monitors and ophthalmology supplies and equipment were delivered into Baghdad this week by WHO. This delivery forms part of the integral support given by WHO to the Ministry of Health under the UNDG ITF Mental Health and Non-Communicable Disease Programme to strengthen health facilities with regards to the reduction and prevention and blindness.

• The WHO is also training Iraqi specialists:
  

  Nine Iraqi technicians arrived in Cairo on the 25th June 2005 to start a period of intensive training courses at the Drug Control, Analysis and Research Centre in Egypt, which are due to last between two -- four weeks each... 37 participants from the Iraqi Ministry of Health the Ministry of Higher Education this week completed the first National Training Course on Management of Public Health Risks in Disasters and Complex Emergencies, being conducted by WHO in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre.

• In other WHO contribution: "The World Health Organisation has pledged a sum of six million dollars to support a polio vaccination campaign in Iraq, which the Iraqi health ministry has been bringing to all the provinces of the country... [According to ministry spokesman], 'the initial results demonstrate that the first four days of the campaign, had achieved success in 90 percent of the cases, but we hope that in the fifth and sixth day to cover 95 percent of the cases predicted for the first phase, regardless of the difficulties that the medical team has been facing in certain regions because of the ongoing fighting and high temperatures'."
  


• In other recent health news: "On June 22, one of 167 medical clinic projects planned for the country got under way. A $656,000 clinic in the Khanaqin district of Diyala province, in which Baghdad is located, is one of two programmed for construction in the district. Both are now under construction."
  


• Lastly, the southern marshes destroyed by Saddam are strongly coming back to life:
  

  Water now inundates 3,350 square kilometers of Iraqi marshes which the former regime had drained and turned into desert, according to the Minister of Water Resources Abdulatif al-Rashid.

  In a statement faxed to the newspaper, Rashid said his ministry has completed what he described as “two strategic projects” in the area which made the inundation possible.

  Rashid said flooding the area with water was not the only goal of his ministry.

  “The ministry is pressing ahead with efforts to reclaim the land, provide water for irrigation and boost agriculture,” he said in the statement.

  “The ministry has succeeded in expanding the flooded areas which now form 40% of the southern marshes,” he said.

  The news is a major success story for a government embroiled in corruption and a bloody war against mounting insurgent attacks.

  Water now flows into scores of small rivers and streams the former regime had either blocked or filled with earth.

HUMANITARIAN AID:

• USAID is working with the disabled in one province (link in PDF):
  

  USAID’s Community Action Program (CAP) partner working in As Sulaymaniyah conducted a ten day workshop for people with disabilities. The training covered two key areas: training of trainers, and advocacy and fundraising for associations of disabled people. Participants included representatives of the disabled community and staff from the CAP partner in the region. Participants returned to their governorates planning to conduct presentations that would promote the rights of the disabled and demonstrate techniques to include persons with disabilities in the community. These presentations will raise awareness among community leaders and members about the issues disabled people in their community face. Commenting on the benefits of the training, one participant said, “The end of the ten-day training marks the beginning of a lifelong journey.”

• Italians are making a valuable contribution to health system in Baghdad:
  

  As insurgents continue the upsurge in attacks in Baghdad, the Italian hospital there is one of the few foreign hospitals continuing to treat Iraqi citizens, despite the deteriorating security situation and the incidents of foreigners being kidnapped. The hospital director, Dr Donato D'Agostino, of the Italian Red Cross, told Adnkronos International (AKI) that "the organisation was set up in Baghdad in April 2003 with Italian Red Cross employees as well as Iraqi support staff." Since then it has treated 21,000 gravely ill people and 11,000 emergency cases.

  The hospital's work is spread over two main sections, one for burn wounds and one for children's illnesses, and also includes an emergency burns unit and a day clinic.

  "There are beds for 150 patients a day and another 40-50 burn victims. We have twelve Italian staff and 95 Iraqis, including 60 doctors and nurses," said D'Agostino.
  "The hospital, which is completely free, is run along European lines and we have trained Iraqis who will carry on our work when we leave Iraq," he told AKI.

• Here's more of Italian medical assistance:
  

  A flight carrying a group of 50 Iraqis, including 13 people requiring bone-marrow transplants, their relatives and donors, on Friday left Baghdad for Rome, Italy where they will receive free medical treatment as part of an Italian government-sponsored programme...

  During the programme's first phase, Iraqi patients will be treated by the Italy-based Mediterranean Institute of Haematology, while in subsequent phases, Iraqi doctors and other medical workers will receive training in Italy.

  In term of the agreement, the Italy will support the creation of bone-marrow transplant facilites at hospitals in Baghdad, Mosul and Nassiriya.

• A 14-year old girl continues to receive medical attention in the United States:
  

  Still healing from her second major facial surgery, Eman Hashim will stay in the United States this summer, rather than return to her native Iraq this month, as planned.

  The 14-year-old girl, born with a severe facial deformity, will live with a host family in Virginia Beach and will likely have a third surgery in September.

  Her father, Khalid, plans to leave for Iraq on July 19 but will come back to Hampton Roads before the next operation, said Lisa Jones, a spokeswoman for Operation Smile. The Norfolk-based nonprofit group has paid for Eman to have surgery here two years in a row.

• Every little bit helps as local communities become motivated to help:
  

  Graham Leonard, an East Tennessee native and former Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, was asked by the Sevier County Democratic Club to share his experiences as an embedded journalist for the Beirut Star for five weeks this past spring. About 100 residents attended the town meeting held at Sevierville Civic Center...

  While Leonard was "praising the positive work in Iraq of Tennessee's 278th National Guard," he mentioned in particular the great work the soldiers are doing to help the children of Iraq and their schools.

  "Leonard asked if we were sending things to Iraq and said, 'Don't send them candy. Send school supplies - the schools are desperate for basic school supplies,'" said Anderson.

  That statement became a call to action for the Democratic Club and its Young Democrats, and within three weeks, a yard sale had been organized to raise funds for the project in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical way...

  The money raised bought 11 boxes of notepads, pens, pencils, crayons, markers, modeling clay, scissors, paper, construction paper, dry erase boards, tape and other items.

  In addition, Donna and Joey Strickland, local business owners and members of the Democratic Club, personally donated three boxes of inflatable Frisbees, yo-yos and plastic rulers to send.

• So you too can make the difference.
  


• US troops in Iraq are overwhelmed by public support for one of their programs:
  

  Task Force Baghdad Soldiers said they have been overwhelmed and overjoyed by donations Americans have been sending to a program designed to provide school supplies, clothes and toys to Iraqi children.

  The Iraqi Schools Program, founded by Maj. Greg Softy in August 2003, is currently being managed by the Soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd infantry Division. Softy was the squadron operations officer with 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division.

  Iraqi Schools is a widely-successful program that links the American people at home with an actual neighborhood of Iraqis who need help. The enormous generosity of Americans has allowed 3rd Bn., 7th Inf. Reg., known as the Cottonbalers, to distribute vital school supplies, medical supplies and clothing to local Iraqis in need.

  As of May 25, 42,682 packages had been received with 1,013,274 pounds of school supplies, clothing, and toys distributed in the West Rashid area of Baghdad.

• There is also help from the neighbor:
  

  Syria has been supplying Iraq with water since mid-June in a show of solidarity with the Iraqi people "who are passing through very delicate circumstances", the state-run al-Thawra newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting Syrian Irrigation Minister Nader al-Buni. Al-Buni told al-Thawra that Syria has supplied Iraq with 670 million cubic metres of water per second from the Euphrates River over the past two weeks, adding that the supply will continue for the next three months.

THE COALITION TROOPS:

• The troops continue to collaborate with local authorities to improve the conditions of local residents:
  

  In the midst of rebuilding a nation, local leaders here also want to rebuild their image with their citizens and their potential voters.

  Much like U.S. military leaders and supporters of the coalition forces here, Iraqi governors want their residents to read about more than suicide car bombings and watch news coverage that includes more than insurgent terror.

  They want them to know they are working to stem the violence while fixing leaking sewer systems, collecting trash and figuring out ways to get more electrical power into cities throughout north-central Iraq.

  “We know that terrorism targets everybody,” the governor of Kirkuk province, Abdel Rahman Mostafa, said at a press conference in Baqubah, in neighboring Diyala province. “It concerns a lot of people.”

  The governors from Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah Ad Din and Sulimaniyah gathered Saturday for a bi-monthly meeting with U.S. generals whose troops patrol the same provinces. The governors condemned the violence and said they are working together to come up with strategies to beat the insurgents. But they also said they are working hard to collaborate on improvement projects, such as sewage, utility and school renovations.

• As the report notes, "in Diyala alone, $207 million has been earmarked for 260 improvement projects ranging from building a hydroelectric dam to buying medical equipment for hospitals to repaving roads, according to Capt. Myers Smith, a project coordinator for the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is working with the New York guard in Iraq. A map in Smith’s office shows the hundreds of ongoing projects. Right now, the process of prioritizing, writing specifications, bidding and approving projects is a joint effort by the Americans and the Iraqis, Smith said."
  

• The troops around Balad are trying to make a difference in every small way they can, while at the same time preparing the local authorities to take over more responsibilities:
  

  Soldiers from Task Force Liberty are working to improve the way of life for Iraqis while also teaching them to develop reconstruction projects on their own.

  Task Force 1-128 is helping local villages to facilitate projects that will aid them in getting clean drinking water, renovating their schools, improving their agriculture and receiving supplies for their medical clinics.

  Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry Regiment, Wisconsin Army National Guard and Troop K, 3rd Squadron, 278th Armored Calvary Regiment, Tennessee Army National Guard, make up TF 1-128 and are actively working to train and prepare the local Iraqi security forces and government officials to take control of everyday operations in Iraq...

  [Capt. Paul] Shannon said his Soldiers are not conducting large reconstruction projects; they are just trying to improve the villages a little bit at a time.

  "It is not much," he said. "I am not building entire schools at this point. I am just fixing roofs that leak, providing fresh water tanks for the children, small things of that nature."

  The Soldiers have been helping improve a water treatment plant, the roofs of a school and local clinic, but soon they will be turning these types of missions over to the city council and local security forces, Shannon said.

• The troops are also engaged in an ambitious program of health infrastructure construction:
  

  With its infant mortality rate for children under 5 a staggering 14.2 percent and 12.8 percent for children under 12 months old, Iraq needs much more than a temporary solution to its crippling dilemma.

  According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, these figures have risen sharply since 1991. Now, with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District (GRS) and the Project and Contracting Office (PCO), 150 new primary health care facilities, of three different types, are being built, with 60 scheduled to be constructed in the southern Iraq, according to Juan Vargas, PCO health program manager.

  “This project was coordinated at the Ministry of Health in Baghdad,” said Vargas. “Project sites were based on demographics and needs. The ministry decided which type of clinic they wanted at each location.”

  The $80 million program for the 60 southern clinics does not include administrative costs, according to Dr. Shah Alam, GRS program manager. The figure does include program and medical equipment costs.

  “The nice thing about it is there is a real need for the clinic program and it feels good to know that something good is coming to the people.”

  He said that each clinic would cost about $800 thousand to build, and another $500 thousand in medical equipment costs, bringing the total package for each clinic to $1.4 to $1.5 million.

• Again around Balad, troops are working to improve the quality of drinking water for the locals:
  

  Turning on the kitchen sink to get a glass of clean water is not an option for Iraqis here, but Task Force Liberty soldiers are helping to change that by bringing fresh water close to their front doors.

  The area has palm trees, green grass, fresh crops and a variety of water sources to include canals, lakes and streams, but the villagers still don’t have fresh drinking water. That is why the soldiers from Task Force 1-128 are installing water treatment facilities to turn these non-purified water sources into drinkable water...

  [U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jean] Briggs said they began the project by purchasing four water purification systems for the area and have been working with local Iraqis to run water lines to their homes.

  “Task force commanders have been paying locals to lay down pipe from the water tanks and run it along the roads,” Briggs said. “We install spigots in front of each house.”

  Providing clean water for the Iraqis is important Briggs said, but they hope someday the Iraqis will get purified running water in their homes.

  “It is the best we can do right now,” he said. “It is a quick fix until we get to a point in this whole operation where we can install plumbing directly into the homes, but for them, it is a big step just to have it at the front door.”

• Water is also on the mind around Yusifiyah:
  

  The Tigris River is the lifeblood of the Arab J'Bour village and other rural farming communities in Yusufiyah , Iraq . With that in mind, 48th Brigade Combat Team civil affairs Soldiers paid a visit to the Yusufiyah water pumping Station on July 4 to follow up on the progress of military engineering efforts there.

  Thousands of families rely on the water supplied by the pumping station. A predominantly farming region, the need for water factors greatly into the community's ability to flourish.

  Servicing a vital irrigation reservoir, the pumping station feeds from the only abundant water source, the Tigris River . Maintaining functionality of the pumping station has been challenging...

  Initial surveys indicate 12 pumps are needed to supply the region, but current power availability levels only allow eight to operate. The plant has its own generators, but they are old and require constant repairs. Wiring problems are also an issue. A new generator was recently delivered to the site and the 48th BCT has arranged for two more to be delivered by mid-July. This will benefit farming efforts enormously.

• As local apricot farmer Hamid says: "I thank you for everything... My dream is to one day visit your country and repay you for all of your kindness, God willing."
  


• In Babil province, soldiers from Task Force 2-11 are helping the locals with a variety of projects to improve local areas:
  

  Six Iraqi flags stand in a room where U.S. Army Lt. Andrew Browne meets with Hadi Bardi Khadum, an Iraqi contractor. For 45 minutes, Lt. Browne and Khadum discuss a project to clean irrigation canals in the North Babil province.

  North Babil is a predominantly agricultural province located 30 miles south of Baghdad. Due to a buildup of sediment, vegetation, and pollution, many of North Babil's canals are unsuitable for irrigation.

  Browne and Khadum plan to clean nine kilometers of the canals within ten days. Within 30 days, the projects Browne has assisted with will have cleaned over seven times that amount.

  Over the course of the conversation, the two men look over a map of North Babil, they review a contract, and they discuss long-term effects of the project for the people of the province. With the assistance of an Iraqi translator, Browne and Khadum agree to a start date.

  The meeting marks business as usual for Browne, who serves as Task Force 2-11 Armored Cavalry Regiment's Civil Military Operations (CMO) officer.

  The CMO officer ensures projects in Task Force 2-11's area of operations are properly funded. Project funding is supported in-theater as a part of the Commander's Emergency Response Program.

• Humanitarian missions continue, like this one:
  

  On June 24, 2005, soldiers from Headquarters, Charlie Battery and Headquarters Colt Team of the 2nd Battalion 114th Field Artillery, headquartered in Starkville, Miss., commanded by Lt. Col. Gary Huffman, in cooperation with the Iraqi Army, conducted a Medical/Humanitarian Assistance Mission at the Al Talia School near Forward Operating Base Lima in Karbala. Their mission, designed to provide basic medical and humanitarian assistance to the local population, resulted in the screening, treatment, and referral of approximately 250 people by a medical team that included doctors, nurses, and medics from Iraq and the United States in Karbala. Soldiers distributed 300 bags filled with food, water, and other supplies useful to a family household. During the operation the soldiers cooperated with the Iraqi Army in providing security and quick reaction forces. Prior to the mission they assisted with key planning and coordination that resulted in successful support for the Coalition and Iraqi Army Personnel involved in the effort.

• Sometimes humanitarian missions combine health support with other humanitarian elements:
  

  Soldiers from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry; C Company, 199th Forward Support Battalion; and 1st Battalion, 141st Field Artillery, all of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division held a medical clinic and distributed supplies at a school in the Hateen area of Baghdad July 5.

  Maj. Kathy Champion, from Olympia, Wash., commander of A Co., 448th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to 256th BCT, is also a physician.

  "As long as I’m helping the Iraqi people I’m doing my job, whether I’m serving as a doctor, or as a civil affairs officer," she said...

  The event was coordinated by leadership of A Co. 3-156th, and 1st Lt. Jeremy Falanga from Baton Rouge, La., executive officer for the company, said the collaboration of many elements, beginning with the Iraqi population, is what made the day a success.

  "We set everything up through the local officials, and they spread the word to the community that we were going to provide medicine and health care today," he said.

  He added that another group of Soldiers gave the citizens something to go home with.

  "We also had the 1-141st doing Kids for Kids, passing out school supplies, school bags, and toys," said Falanga.

  Kids for Kids is a program started in February 2005 by Soldiers from 1-141st FA. It began as a tasking from their higher command which they developed into the website, www.childrenofbaghdad.com, asking for clothing, toiletries, and everyday necessities for Iraqi children. The site resulted in thousands of donations from the United States over the past several months, and it will soon expand even more.

• This Indiana serviceman is on a mission to help Iraqi children:
  

  The children had no shoes.

  They were running and playing in glass, trash and even sewage, hoping the soldiers in the convoy would toss them a treat.

  The sight of their small, bare feet deeply affected U.S. Army Capt. Doug Hedrick, Indianapolis, who was riding from Baqouba to Baghdad in Iraq.

  "I sat in silence feeling overwhelmed with how many different ways these children need help," Hedrick said in an e-mail to fellow members of Grace Community Church in Noblesville.

  Then it hit him -- what he calls God's intention for his tour of duty. Hedrick, 36, knew he wanted to take part in a humanitarian project. And there it was, as plain as -- shoes. He was going to help supply new shoes for Iraq's kids.

  The soldier is a chaplain with a medic team. "Live a Life Worth Living!" is his motto on his e-mails.

  Too often, the worthy life and attendant acts of kindness in Iraq are eclipsed by suicide bombers and other horrors. Too often we get only the stories and images that leave us discouraged or terrified.

  Not today.

  Hedrick's project is "Noah's Shoes." He is fascinated with the biblical story of Noah -- a time when "God decided to give the human race a future hope." The people of Iraq, he said, are in that same place, in a season of new beginnings.

• Soldiers continue supporting Iraqi education system. In a southern province, the Army engineers have completed a school reconstruction program:
  

  Headmasters at three mud schools took charge of their new brick and concrete replacement schools as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Southern District signed the schools over to the education minister in the Babil Province after local laborers completed the three projects May 15.

  All three mud school replacement schools boast 12 classrooms instead of the usual six, according to Valerie Schaffner, Buildings, Health and Education project manager for the mud school replacement projects. The usual six-classroom design was geared to smaller rural areas, servicing about 100 students, and the schools in Babil - Yaum Al Huria; Al Masoodi and Al Ma’rij - serve 275, 370 and 590 students respectively.

  “The cost was about $160,000 per school,” said Schaffner. “That includes storage space, student and teachers’ bathrooms, electricity for fans, a partially paved playground area and a security fence around the school.”

  She added that, because of security risks in the area, no opening day ceremonies were be held. These schools will be getting some new furniture for the teachers and the headmasters’ offices.

  Schaffner said that originally, 38 schools mud schools were to be replaced throughout southern Iraq, but that the number has increased to 40.

  “We saved enough in negotiations to build two more, which we are now writing contracts for but are not yet advertised,” said Schaffner. “The $4 million program, funded by the Iraq Restoration and Reconstruction Funds, now is paying for 40 new schools, 36 of which are the standard six-classroom design and four – these three in Babil and one more in the Karbala Province – are of the larger, 12-classroom design.”

• Meanwhile, Utah National Guardsmen are trying to help Iraqi schoolchildren and in the process win some young hearts and minds:
  

  The children run along the edge of the road as the trucks rumble by. Hands outstretched, hoping for candy and small toys, they bend their fingers into awkward "thumbs up," "OK" and "V for victory" signs.

  Many of Iraq's adults may long ago have grown tired of seeing American troops on their streets, but soldiers in the area of Najaf, about 80 miles south of Baghdad, say the country's children are different.

  "Amerikee," the children yell, again and again, whenever they see passing GIs...

  "They seem to love the Americans and we need to work with that," said Jolleen Larson, whose husband is a member of the 115th Maintenance Company of the Utah National Guard. "We want them to have more experiences of seeing Americans really trying to help them."

  To that end, Larson and other Utah Guard family members have begun to collect supplies for two Najaf-area schools adopted by American soldiers, including many from the 115th.

  The schools are small and simple. Built by the British in the 1930s, one was crumbling when the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit came upon it last year. The unit built a new building and furnished it with new desks and blackboards. In their off hours, soldiers like Rusty Larson are now building school furniture - desks for teachers, bookcases and other items specifically requested by the headmaster.

• In other similar recent action: "U.S. soldiers from Task Force 1-128 and the Iraqi army took a day off from their normal security patrols June 28 and handed out school supplies, clothes and shoes in a few small villages during a combat patrol. The soldiers distributed more than 60 boxes of goods containing more than 100 pairs of shoes, assorted clothes and hundreds of pounds of school supplies such as pens, pencils, notebooks and paper to children and families in the villages of Albouhaswa, Ahmed Hajam and Jaafaral Jalaby."
  


• The troops also try to supplement the work of the over-stretched and under-resourced Iraqi health system:
  

  As the story goes, a good Samaritan helped an injured stranger along a well-traveled road in the Middle East more than 2,000 years ago.

  Today, hundreds of miles farther east, reservists of the 433rd Medical Squadron are working with about 140 Airmen of the 59th Medical Wing at Wilford Hall Medical Center here, Army medics and Australians to help those who need medical care -- friends and strangers alike.

  "We see everybody, Iraqi army, coalition soldiers and bad guys," said Col. (Dr.) Russ Turner, the 59th Aeromedical Dental Group commander deployed as commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group at Balad Air Base, Iraq. "We don't turn anybody away, because there is nowhere to go."

• And in public health, the troops are also introducing programs to keep the streets cleaner:
  

  Along with human waste and other sewage, solid waste has inundated Baghdad’s streets for decades, contributing to sewer backups, disease, and a tainted water supply.

  With the establishment of all-Iraqi contracted neighborhood dumpsters, trash collection and removal teams, and trash transfer points, the practice of littering the streets is slowly starting to change.

  "We are working with the Iraqi communities to train them on proper trash removal plans," said Lt Col. Jamie Gayton, commander of 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

  Trash removal was the focal point of essential service support for 1st Cavalry Division when they arrived in Baghdad in 2003, and has continued to be a priority for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team since early this year, Gayton said.

• USAID provides grants for cleaning projects. As the report notes, "currently, there are 96 surface cleaning projects ongoing in the 2nd BCT area of operations, employing 6,800 Iraqis. In the second week of June, 946,000 pounds of trash were collected in east Baghdad – 418,000 pounds more than were collected six weeks ago."
  


• The troops are also training Iraqi fire-fighters:
  

  Actions speak louder than words - particularly in Iraq. Such is absolutely the case, every morning, when Baghdad Fire Chief, Laith Abbas, gets out of bed and heads to work.

  Each day, he faces the reality that there is a significant “price on his head” by those who would destroy efforts to build a democracy in Iraq. However, for the good of the country, there are those - like this intense, wiry professional - who strive each day, one difficult step at a time, to build their part of what they hope will soon become an active, viable democracy...

  Recently, he took a moment from his hectic schedule to view fire fighting training by the teams from seven of Baghdad’s fire stations, representing slightly less than 10% of Baghdad’s total firefighter force. On this sweltering 120 degree afternoon, these activities were being conducted by Staff Sgt. Michael DiDonato, of the 443rd Civil Affairs Battalion in the Government Support Team, of the 3rd Infantry Division. Chief Abbas paused briefly from his “active observation” to note that “before the war, we had only empty fire trucks that did not work and no equipment.” And training in those days? “None,” conveys his rueful expression.

  But such is no longer the case. “Sgt. D,” as the Iraqis he teaches fondly call him, cites that over the last nine months nearly 500 of Baghdad’s fire fighters have undergone various aspects of training. Some of the training that he has overseen includes first aid, drivers training, engine driven water pumping, drafting from a water source, advancing a hose line into a blaze, application of fire foam and thermo imaging camera work.

• It's not just the American troops. Here's the latest Italian contribution:
  

  An inauguration ceremony has been held to open a bridge built by the Italian contingent in the Dhi Qar governorate in the south of Iraq where the force is based. The iron bridge - which is around 60 metres long and four and a half metres high - crosses a stretch of public water known as 'Saddam's river'.

  Ahmad al-Shaykh, the vice governor of Dhi Qar, told Adnkronos International (AKI) at the inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by the commander of the Italian force in Iraq, that "the bridge, built in a remote agricultural area, responds to the needs of farmers, by making it easier for them to sell their produce."

  "This project is part of a series of civil initiatives the Italian forces have offered the city in all sectors," he explained. The Italian troops also defused two bombs that had been planted close to where the inauguration ceremony was being held.

  The Italian contingent in Iraq has also offered to pay for a green belt of trees which will be planted around the new Dhi Qar University, which is to be built in the western part of Nassiriya. The rector of the university, Riyad Shantah, told AKI: "the green belt will be ten kilometres long and will surround the university buildings to protect them from the dust of the city, which is a particular problem during the summer." He went on to add: "next year the university has decided to open a department for the teaching of the Italian language in the arts faculty and another faculty in the Jabaysh area in the lake district, which will be completely funded and equipped by Italy."

• Lastly, not forgetting that the Iraqis themselves contribute in various ways to the Coalition effort, read the story of this Iraqi refugee who has now returned to his country and works as a translator for the American troops in Fallujah.

SECURITY:

• Despite the perception of spiralling violence, the official Iraqi count of civilian and security casualties indicates that violence has actually decreased in June. While the numbers are still high, "in June, data provided by the Iraqi ministries of defence, health and the interior showed that 430 people had died in attacks and 933 were wounded, a drop of more than one-third from May's death toll of 672 dead. The number of wounded was down by 20%."
  


• There is also some cautious optimism from military commanders in Iraq:
  

  U.S. and Iraqi forces have "mostly eliminated" the ability of insurgents to conduct sustained, high-intensity attacks in Baghdad, the top U.S. commander in the Iraqi capital said Friday.

  Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr. said in a video-teleconference interview from Baghdad with reporters at the Pentagon that offensive operations by U.S. and Iraqi troops in recent weeks had sharply reduced the number of insurgent bombings. But he cautioned against concluding that the insurgency has been broken.

  "It's very difficult to know it's over," Webster said.

  There were 14 to 21 car bombings per week in Baghdad before the May 22 start of the U.S. portion of the latest offensive, dubbed Operation Lightning, he said. That has dropped to about seven or eight a week now, Webster said, attributing the improvement to the disruption of insurgent cells and the availability of more and better intelligence.

• There are also indications that terrorists are starting to lose the propaganda war in the Arab media. While the US is still being blamed for the violence, Iraq's suicide bombers are getting increasingly bad press:
  

  Al Jazeera - often accused by the Americans of stirring anti-US feeling - has adopted less of an "Us and Them" approach.

  The militants are no longer referred to as the "resistance" but as gunmen or suicide bombers.

  Eyewitnesses are shown denouncing them as "terrorists" - condemnations that are echoed by a parade of Iraqi officials and religious authorities.

  One recent attack drew this comment from the al-Jazeera reporter: "Most of the time it's civilians who pay the price for the violence that has cost thousands of their lives".

  Al-Jazeera's main rival, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya, has also shown little sympathy for the bombers - a recent report, instead, painted a favourable picture of British soldiers patrolling Basra...

  In Iraq itself, two of the most widely available channels, al-Iraqiya and al-Sharqiya, have consistently portrayed the suicide bombers as trying to destroy the country rather than liberate it...

  Iraqi papers have also increasingly expressed anguish and anger over the civilian toll, with one paper, al-Bayan, recently commenting that " terrorism had exceeded all moral limits".

  Another Iraqi paper, al-Dustur, has called on Iraqis to wake up to the fact that they are the targets of terrorism and to unite to fight back against it.

  In the wider Arab world, several newspapers have condemned the killings in Iraq - for example, the Saudi al-Jazeera - unconnected to the television channel - said that they were a "black mark on the whole Islamic world".

• There are reports of conflict between Iraqis and Al Qaeda fighters - the so-called "red on red" fighting:
  

  American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents.

  Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country.

  The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code.

• There are also reports that approaches by people connected with the insurgency to American authorities have doubled since the January election.
  


• Meanwhile up north, "for the first time, hundreds of Qayara citizens of Mosul have demonstrated to protest the insurgency. More than 1,500 civilians and military personnel from different villages south of Mosul gathered in Qayara city to denounce the insurgency that is overwhelming Iraq. The demonstration comes at the initiative of clerics, Imams, and government officials who feel the necessity to announce their stance against terrorism. They want to prove that most Iraqis oppose terrorism, which will be defeated by the will of Iraqis."
  


• Staff Sergeant Geoff Wagner is part of the 155th Armored Brigade of the Mississippi Army National Guard also sees positive trends:
  

  He says thanks to the combined efforts of the American troops and Iraqi military and law enforcement personnel, the number of car bombings and other incidents involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are decreasing, and the terrorists are having a hard time finding recruits.

  "Over the last two months," Wagner notes, "I can count probably ten terrorists who have blown themselves up trying to set IEDs. They're just not trained, and they're taking quick money, and there are just not enough people to actually perform the job."

  Although the terrorist insurgents have been very active in the area where the 155th is deployed, Wagner says because of the activity of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police as well as the U.S. soldiers, much of that movement has dissipated since the U.S. troops got there. "Actually, we were taking anywhere from 15 to 20 bombing attacks in a week's time," he notes, "and now it's less than five. So the terrorists are moving out of our area, and they're having a lot of difficulty recruiting."

• You can also visit this safest town in Iraq:
  

  The raging violence and mounting insurgent activities in Baghdad and many other areas make it hard to believe that there is a violence-free spot in Iraq. But thank God there is at least one place with low crime incidence and almost no bombs.

  That place is the city of Kut, 100 kilometers south of Baghdad and home to about 500,000 people.

  In this city the nascent police forces have almost full authority. It is the place where the rule of law and not the gun prevails.

  “We have a high degree of cooperation between the security forces and the citizens,” declared Latif al-Tarfa, the governor of the Province of Wasit of which Kut is the capital.

  “I do not say there are no attempts to sow sedition and incite violence in the province but with the help of our residents we have managed to foil all of them,” he added.

  “We are proud of our social coexistence which we have enjoyed for decades and would not let that be undermined,” he said.

• In Baghdad, paradoxes of security situation:
  

  During a week when insurgents killed at least 15 U.S. soldiers across Iraq, four American soldiers on a foot patrol through the middle-class Karada district of the capital felt secure enough to stop at a kebab stand for shawarma sandwiches, greasy slices of chicken wrapped in pita bread.

  "I'm encouraging soldiers to perform more dismounted patrols and to have more face-to-face interactions with Iraqis," said U.S. Army Col. Edward Cardon, commander of a 3rd Infantry Division brigade that covers much of Baghdad. College student Degha Abdul Hamid drove a girlfriend to the lively Zayona commercial strip to shop for shoes and handbags, a previously unheard-of foray for the two single women since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq more than two years ago.

  "It's better now, much better," Hamid, 28, said. "I feel safer and I stay out later."

  Life these days in Baghdad is paradoxical.

  On one hand, the level of bloodshed caused by the insurgency continues to increase. At the same time, with Iraqi police and soldiers maintaining an increased presence on the streets, controlling traffic and fighting everyday crime, many residents say they feel secure enough to attempt to lead more normal lives.

• Read the rest of the article; there's plenty interesting anecdotal evidence there.

• Speaking of Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers from the 6th Battalion of the 5th Division have now officially taken over from the American forces the control over security in the so-called "Green Zone", which houses most of the government and administration buildings.
  


• And in Mosul, Army Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of the Multinational Force Northwest, reports that the Iraqi troops are also making progress, with more troops coming onboard from training every month and insurgent attacks decreasing slightly. Meanwhile, "on June 1, in the first move of its kind, coalition forces officially transferred full responsibility for security at a base in Dibbis to the Iraqi army."
  


• Training of Iraqi security forces continues. NATO is finally coming onboard to help with this task:
  

  The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has announced the opening of a new training centre in the capital, Baghdad, for Iraqi security forces…

  "We have reached a consensus that it will be a better way to serve the Iraqi forces with a better equipped and specialised centre inside the country," NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel said from the Belgian capital, Brussels.

  The centre will be located in the Rustmiyah district, southeast of the capital. NATO advisers will be offering training and education on human rights law to Iraqi officer

  "We expect that the centre will be fully equipped and ready for work at the end of September and as soon as it starts, it will be training more than 1,000 Iraqi officers annually," Pszczel added…

  Sami added that more than 4,000 officers had already been trained by NATO in Iraq or in courses conducted outside the country.

• Read this three part series about the long and arduous task of building Iraqi security forces from scratch, including the construction of physical infrastructure:
  

  Sonny Sebastian is running ahead of schedule, and he wants to keep it that way.

  Sporting an orange hardhat, the 50-year-old Texan ambles from one building to the next to check the progress on the construction of a $16 million academy for the Iraqi Border Police. He talks with a foreman, points here and points there, and then moves on to another supervisor.

  Originally scheduled for completion in August, the academy may open next month. Located in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, the 22-building academy will include barracks, a dining hall, classrooms and an armory.

  “The key to building in Iraq,” said Sebastian, a project manager for ECC International, a civilian contractor, “is to let them work the way they know how to work, with an emphasis on quality.”

  There are hundreds of other major projects for Iraqi security forces that are either completed, in progress or on the drawing board. Of the $5.2 billion already allocated to Iraqi security forces, $1.7 billion has gone toward constructing or improving facilities, said Lt. Col. David Youngberg, an Army comptroller based in Baghdad.

• At Forward Operating Base O'Ryan near Balad, "Coalition soldiers are working around the clock to make sure their Iraqi counterparts are ready and capable of protecting Iraq and its citizens":
  

  U.S. soldiers from 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry are helping the country’s soldiers transition into overseeing the missions being conducted in their area of operations.

  At the Iraqi army training facility here the soldiers are taught how to set up traffic control points, identify improvised explosive devices and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, conduct personnel searches, distinguish between insurgents and civilians and how to react to enemy contact.

  Task Force 1-128 soldiers from 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry Regiment, Wisconsin Army National Guard and Troop K, 3rd Squadron, 278th Armored Calvary Regiment, Tennessee Army National Guard are conducting the training.

  The Iraqi army soldiers are doing well with their training said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. John Macullouch, an instructor with Troop K.

  “I don’t feel that they will have any problems taking over the area,” Macullouch said. “We have spent a lot of hours with these guys.”

• The latest to join in the force:
  

  The Iraqi Army activated its 5th Brigade, 6th Division during a ceremony at Muthana Airfield June 29.

  Iraqi soldiers in the eight-week long program received tactical and strategic training to allow them to defend their country against enemy threats...

  The brigade, made up of more than 2,500 Iraqi Soldiers, began training April 18 at Muthana Airfield. Soldiers from 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment worked with the fledgling Iraqi Soldiers.

• On the police front, most recently, "the Iraqi Police Service graduated 172 police officers from advanced and specialty courses at the Adnan Training Facility July 7... The courses consist of Basic Criminal Investigations with 66 graduates, Critical Incident Management with 30 graduates, First Line Supervision with 25 graduates, Violent Crime Investigation with 31 graduates, and Interview and Interrogation with 20 graduates."
  


• Under the new agreement between the US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales and Iraqi authorities, FBI and other American law enforcement agencies will help Iraqi police investigate high-level crimes such as murders and kidnappings, where the local police is lacking sufficient forensic expertise.
  


• There is also training of Iraqi officers:
  

  Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade graduated from the first organized Iraqi Army Leadership Training Course at Forward Operating Base Justice.

  “This is just another important step forward and another first for this outstanding Iraqi Brigade,” said Brig. Gen. John Basilica, Jr., commander of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. “The development of a professional noncommissioned officer (NCO) corps is critical to the combat readiness of the unit.

  “This is the first of many courses that will be conducted to train the NCOs of the 1st Iraqi Army Brigade,” Basilica added. “What is especially important is the cadre duties were also shared by the Iraqis and thus their ownership of this program is established from the beginning.”

• Benefits of close interaction can go both ways: "An interesting experiment is going on in the northeast corner of this city. Members of the Iraqi Army and the U.S. Marine Corps are sharing living quarters on a small base. The intent of the experiment is to help the Iraqi soldiers learn more. But it has had an unanticipated side effect: Some marines are picking up new skills. Pfc. Mark Britton has learned Arabic."
  


• US Navy will be becoming more involved in the training effort in order to speed it up:
  

  U.S. Navy leaders are ready to pluck more sailors off ships and deploy them to Iraq to bolster U.S. efforts in training Iraqi forces, the chief of the U.S. Navy Reserve said Wednesday.

  “Are we going to take some sailors from the sea and put them ashore to answer this call?” Vice Adm. John Cotton said during an interview in Naples on Wednesday. “The answer to that is a resounding yes.”

  Last week, Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, urged Pentagon leaders to add Navy and Air Force members to ground elements in Iraq to speed up training of Iraqi security forces.

  “Our NATO partners have promised to lend their efforts to training Iraqi security forces,” Skelton said. “They must get more engaged and soon. We have embedded trainers in transition teams with the Iraqis. We must commit even more trainers to this effort.
  “If that means moving more Air Force and Navy personnel to Army billets to free them up for this mission, we need to do this,” Skelton said. “We need to accomplish this mission as quickly as possible because time is not on our side.”

  Cotton did not elaborate on when more sailors may be sent to Iraq, but he pointed out that the Navy Reserve already has added cargo handlers to ground missions in Kuwait. And reservists recently trained 450 customs inspectors who are operating in Kuwait and Iraq, Cotton said.

• Speaking of navy, the Sector Guardian exercises have recently tested the readiness of Iraqi Navy to protect oil installations. The exercises were part of qualifications for patrol boat officers. Iraqi coast guard is also playing an increasing role on Shatt Al Arab:
  

  The Shatt, as it is commonly called, is also the latest front in the Iraqi government's efforts to police the country's borders. The Iraqi coast guard has been newly reconstituted, with 400 men and 34 boats, most of them donated by the British government. The coast guard's most pressing mission is to fend off pirates and to clamp down on the smuggling of gasoline and scrap metal from Iraq; they also have more banal concerns, such as stemming the flow of Iranian pilgrims trying to cross into Iraq illegally by boat.

• Lastly, in an overview, you can read the reflections of Gen. Babakir Shawkat Zebari, chief of staff of the Iraqi Joint Forces, on how much the Iraqi forces have progressed over the course of the past year, and on a more personal note, the profile of one Iraqi soldier, Corporal Arkan Fawaz Mahmood, stationed outside Fallujah.
  


• Security infrastructure also continues to be built for the Iraqi security forces. The Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence has recently announced the completion of construction of a new $770,000 recruiting center for Iraqi military, police and border patrol officers. "The recruiting center is located in northeast Iraq, near the Kurdish town of Sulaymaniyah. The station will support the U.S.-led Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq, which is working to train Iraqis as security forces." Overall, the Center "has awarded $175.9 million in task orders for work in rebuilding Iraq since January of this year. AFCEE has been working to rebuild security and justice facilities in Iraq as well as airports, water systems, military barracks, schools and municipal facilities. The U.S. Air Force and its contractors have made it a point to employ Iraqi workers, including engineers, architects and skilled laborers. Together, they employ between 3,000 and 4,000 Iraqis."
  


• The enormous task of equipping Iraqi army also continues - as this report says, "everything from computers to clean underwear":
  

  Capt. Julius Boyd is a supply officer for an impatient and under-equipped army.

  Boyd, 36, of War, W.Va., is tasked with handing out the uniforms, guns, computers, night-vision goggles, trucks and the dozens of other pieces the Iraqi army needs. He’s trying to outfit an entire brigade, more than 3,500 soldiers, with enough gear to fight their own war.

  “Come on! Come on! Come on!” he yelled Monday morning at a group of Iraqi soldiers who had come into Forward Operating Base Gabe for their daily pickup. “Move! Move! Move!”

  The Iraqis responded, though few spoke English. They’ve learned the routine.

  Almost daily, a group of Iraqi soldiers comes with three or four trucks to pick up supplies at Gabe. The soldiers are from the 2nd Brigade of the 5th Division of the Iraqi army, and they live on an adjacent Iraqi base.

  Each day, Boyd has his inventory list of serial numbers and quantities to track just how much is going next door. It’s a test to make sure the equipment — all paid for with U.S. money — goes to the right soldiers within the designated units, Boyd said. As a part of an advisory team helping the Iraqis train their army, Boyd tracks the shipments by paperwork, makes the Iraqi officers do the same, then compares the lists.

  Here’s a sampling of what Boyd has given out in the past 90 days: 4,430 uniforms, 2,016 helmets, 870 flak jackets, 123 handguns, 26,000 pairs of underwear, four copiers, three ambulances, 141 pairs of binoculars and 451 pairs of running shoes.

  “We’re dressing them from top to bottom,” he said.

  In all, $5.2 billion has been allotted for training and equipping Iraqi security forces.

• The United Arab Emirates are purchasing from Switzerland 180 surplus M113 armored personnel carriers and will be donating them to the Iraqi armed forces.
  


• In stories of increasing security cooperation from Iraqi civilians:
  


• "An Iraqi army unit captured five suspected terrorists June 28 after an Iraqi citizen told the soldiers about a terrorist safe house in northern Baghdad's Rabi district. The Iraqi soldiers found two rocket-propelled grenade launchers and two RPG rounds in addition to the five suspects." As Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a Task Force Baghdad spokesman says: "The Iraqi people are tiring of the insurgency. Both hotline and in-person tips have increased greatly... A big reason for the increase in tips is because of the Iraqi soldiers taking the lead during raids and operations. The Iraqis will talk to their own soldiers much more readily than to coalition forces."
  


• Thanks to a tip from a local who led the soldiers to the location, the 116th Armor Regiment has secured the biggest weapons cache in the Kirkuk province on June 29. Says U.S. Army 1st Lt. John Thew, B Company, 3rd Battalion 116th Brigade Armor Regiment: "We have found in one day, what usually takes four months";
  


• In two separate incidents on June 29 and 30, Iraqi locals have helped the American troops find more than 4,000 pounds of high explosives located near Kirkuk Air Base;
  


• "An Iraqi citizen’s tip helped Task Force Baghdad Soldiers find and disarm a roadside bomb in east Baghdad before terrorists could use it. The civilian told the Soldier he’d seen a five-gallon gas can lying in the median of a major highway at 9:30 a.m. July 2... The team investigated, found a 122-millimeter mortar round wired to a radio, and safely detonated the bomb"; another tip on the same day led soldiers to a suspicious vehicle which turned out to be a car bomb;
  


• "On July 5, an Iraqi citizen told U.S. Task Force Baghdad soldiers he'd seen three men digging holes in the area of a subsequent roadside bomb attack against coalition forces. The man offered to lead the patrol to the attackers' houses and identify the men. Just before midnight, the soldiers searched two houses in the Risalah district of southern Baghdad and captured three men the Iraqi citizen identified as the men he had seen placing the bombs";
  


• On July 7, a local resident in east Baghdad informed the troops about a roadside bomb. A day later, in two separate incidents also in east Baghdad, Iraqi citizens having observed terrorists placing a roadside bomb tipped off Iraqi police, and provided information leading to an arrest of an illegal weapons dealer;
  


• A civilian walked to the gate on a US base in Baghdad on July 9, and informed and the led the personnel to four unexploded rounds;
  


• "Task Force Liberty soldiers detained 13 people suspected of making and emplacing improvised explosive devices during a pair of raids in north-central Iraq July 10 and 11. Nine people were detained near Tikrit after soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team received a tip from a civilian. Three of the people tested positive for contact with explosives, and the group was in possession of weapons, ammunition and IED-making materials".
  


• Many security successes don't make the news at all. Iraq the Model blog has performed an invaluable service of scouring the Iraqi media over a two-day period (25-26 June) to report these:
  

  - 1st regiment/2nd commandoes brigade arrested 43 suspects in Al-Doura district while the 2nd regiment/1st brigade arrested 2 terrorists in Shu'la district.

  - The interior ministry announced the beginning of operation lightning-1 in Babil province which is going to be a joint effort between the Army and the local police forces. The 1st wave of raids resulted in arresting 43 suspects and confiscating 10 vehicles used in terror attacks against Iraqi civilians and security forces.

  - A force from the Iraqi army backed by Polish troops raided terrorists hides in the areas of Jibla and Rashad in the same province and arrested 8 terrorists and confiscated their Ak-47's.

  - Police forces in Kerbala arrested 20 terrorists and confiscated 6 suspicious vehicles and disarmed 2 vehicle-born bombs.

  - In Zangora area near Ramadi, Iraqi and American troops arrested a terror cell leader named 'Jbair Grayen Al-Jiblawi who's one of Zarqawi's aides in Anbar province.

  - In the north, 3 members of the Ansar Al-Sunna army were captured in Mosul; one of the 3 terrorists carried a Saudi ID.

  - In Tikrit, multinational forces arrested 3 roadside bombs-makers and in Kirkuk 10 suspects were arrested. The men are supposed to be responsible for some missile attacks in the city. Explosives' ingredients and blast capsules were found during the search of the arrest scene.

  - In Abu Ghraib, Al-Muthana brigade arrested 19 terrorists and found amounts of weapons and detonation devices as well as vehicles that were prepared for performing terror attacks.

  - In Al-Kasra neighborhood in Baghdad, IP men and American explosives experts failed an attack with a car bomb that was parked in the heavily crowded main commercial street in the district. A shop keeper was suspicious of a car that was left in front of his shop, the driver claimed that the car broke and that he's going to find a mechanic but the shop keeper didn't believe the story and called the police and it was found later that the car contained a large bomb that was a mix of artillery shells, TNT rods and gas containers. By 1 am, the area was evacuated and people were told to keep a distance from the car. The explosives experts detonated the car in its place as it was impossible to move it away. No casualties happened but there was some inevitable material loss in adjacent shops.

  - In Tal-afar near Mosul, Iraqi and American troops killed 15 terrorists in clashes that took place yesterday.

  - Police patrols in Dibis town arrested two terrorists while they were trying to plant a roadside bomb on the main street in the town.

  - One of the most important successes was arresting one of Izzat Al-Douri's relatives along with 3 of his bodyguards.

  - Iraqi TV announced Khalid Sulaiman Darwis (aka Abu Al-Ghadia Al-Soori) was killed during a raid as part of Operation Spear in Anbar province.

• In other security successes:
  


• "On June 17, Multi-National Forces in the Baghdad area conducted operations to capture a reported bomber who worked for the Zarqawi, Al-Qaida terrorist network in Iraq. Though the individual in question fled prior to the forces raiding the home, they did seize a substantial weapons cache. Weapons and extremist items found at the home included: two S5K launchers; two S5K modified rounds; five rocket propelled grenades and seven RPG launchers; five PG-7 rounds; four PG-7m rounds; 16 PG-7 propellant charges; 11 AK-47s; more than 50 ammunition magazines; 5,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition; three RPK machine guns and 5,500 rounds of RPK ammunition; six RGD-5 grenades, and nine AK magazine vests. Most of the weapons were found packed into four large bags. Twelve terrorist 'masks' and various extremist materials were also found at the home. Additionally, Multi-National Forces found a variety of bomb making materials and explosives in the home";
  


• The death in an airstrike outside Qaim of Abdullah al-Rashud, one of the only three out of Saudi Arabia's top 26 most wanted terrorists still at large;
  


• Iraqi and Coalition Forces captured 16 terror suspects, seized weapons and foiled bomb attacks against a police station and four other targets in and around Baghdad June Tuesday [21 June]. In northern Iraq. Task Force Freedom troops killed one terrorist and injured another after the two detonated an explosive device that struck a Coalition convoy. Iraqi and Coalition forces also detained five suspects and seized a weapons cache near Mosul;
  


• The capture on June 21 of Muhsin Abu Sayf, a doctor and interprter attached to an Al Qaeda kidnap cell;
  


• The shootout on June 22 in Baghdad's al-Jamaa neighborhood, which left dead five suspected members of Al Qaeda "apparently waiting to carry out suicide bomb attacks";
  


• On 23 June, the total of 91 terrorists and insurgents were arrested throughout the country, including "4 wanted terrorists were captured in Tikrit and other 18 suspects in the north western sector... two IEDs makers were arrested also as well as 7 men suspected of being responsible for assassinating a member of Baghdad's city council.
  In Mosul, two significant arrests were made when the security forces captured 2 of [previously captured Al Qaeda leader] Abu Talha's senior aides namely Abu Sarhan and Abu Nabhan who surrendered without any resistance... In Baghdad, 28 suspects were captured by Iraqi soldiers with support from American troops. In Baquba, 2 terrorists attempting to perform an attack with a vehicle loaded with explosives were arrested at an Iraqi army checkpoint south of the city. In Adhamiya, A'amil, Saydiya and Yarmouk neighborhoods in Baghdad, 20 terrorists and suspects were arrested during raids carried out by special forces teams of the interior ministry. In Al-Risala district south of Baghdad, a tip came from an Iraqi civilian lead to the arrest of 8 suspects who fled a spot from which the interior ministry complex was attacked. This arrest was done by task force Baghdad";
  


• A concerted assault against a police station in Bagdad, involving 100 insurgents, beaten back by the Iraqi police on June 24, with 10 insurgents killed and 40 captured. "By 6.30am a police machine-gunner on the roof at Baya'a helped turn the tide, firing volleys which forced attackers to take cover and enabled his comrades to take better positions. Residents of the mixed Shia and Sunni neighbourhood made at least 55 phone calls informing the police of insurgent movements. Some fired on the attackers";
  


• Six suspected members of a rocket cell arrested by Iraqi police in Kirku on June 25;
  


• The arrest outside of Mosul on June 26 of Hilal Hussein al-Badrani, the Saudi-born leader of the major Al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunna;
  


• The arrest on 27 June of one of the senior Al Qaeda figures, Sami Ammar Hamid Mahmud, also known as Abu Aqil, thought to be responsible for kidnapping foreigners and Iraqis;
  


• On June 28, soldiers in Baghdad followed 200 meters of a detonation cord from the site of an explosion to a nearby house and arrested seven men inside who were acting suspiciously. On the same day, near another blast site, another man was caught with $1,000 in sequential bills;
  


• "Iraqi security forces detained eight suspected terrorists June 29 in eastern Baghdad during combined operations... Seven of the suspects were found with material used for the production and emplacement of roadside bombs. One had false Palestinian documents";
  


• "Task Force Baghdad Soldiers captured nine terror suspects, seized a weapons cache and disabled terrorist bombs before they could be set off during operations in and around Baghdad June 29";
  


• "Task Force Liberty soldiers found and destroyed eight different caches in Kirkuk province June 29 and 30. Several hundred artillery and mortar rounds of various sizes were destroyed in the operation. Unexploded ordnance was found at several different locations around Kirkuk, including 162 130 mm rounds, 141 122 mm rounds, 100 152 mm rounds, 91 120 mm rounds and 26 82 mm rounds";
  


• In the last few days of June, "US-led forces detained more than a dozen suspected militants in a counterinsurgency sweep through the western Anbar province as part of a sustained effort to disrupt the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq... The raids have also netted several hundred mortar and artillery rounds along with explosives, rifles and two roadside bombs"; overall, 45 suspects were arrested (including foreigners) and thousands of pounds of explosives seized;
  


• "Multinational forces from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), detained 12 suspected terrorists and seized weapons in Mosul, Iraq, June 30"; nine more suspects captured over the next two days;
  


• The lockdown in late June of Buhriz, a town of 57,000, northwest of Baghdad, to ferret out the insurgents; more than two dozen suspects were detained and enough explosives confiscated to construct 160 car bombs;
  


• "Iraqi Security Forces captured seven terror suspects June 30, all of whom are thought to be involved in plotting or carrying out attacks against Iraqi Police stations in central and south Baghdad";
  


• "Iraqi Security Forces from the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division and Coalition forces from the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, uncovered seven weapons caches, a car-bomb factory and a roadside bomb making factory late afternoon on June 30 in the Industrial area, northeast of the Saddam Mosque during a patrol to disrupt terrorist activity... The Iraqi Soldiers discovered the car-bomb factory with a vehicle rigged with explosives at an automotive repair shop in Ramadi. A bomb-making factory was located at a second location with 45 fully prepared roadside bombs inside";
  


• On 1 July, American troops operating outside the town in Hit in western Anbar province defused 9 roadside bombs and arrested 10 suspects; "Some Marines took some time out to e-mail family and friends from an Internet room at the school where the trigger wires for the roadside bombs were found";
  
  Three weapons caches discovered by Task Force Baghdad soldiers on an island along the Tigris River near the city's Al Rashid district on July 1; another two caches uncovered the same day in Al Rashid itself and in Abu Ghraib;
  


• On 2 July, "soldiers of 1st Battalion, 155th Infantry, 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), caught and detained three people suspected of emplacing improvised explosive devices northeast of Musayyib today. A patrol spotted a cordless phone with wires protruding from it in a hole in the road, military officials said. Explosive ordnance disposal team members discovered two 130 mm artillery rounds wired to a long-range cordless phone. The soldiers saw three people lying in a field nearby and detained them for questioning";
  


• The capture on 2 July of one of Al Zarqawi's top aides, Abdul Hamid Mustafa al-Douri, the head of Al Qaeda in Salahudin province; "Douri, a relative to Saddam Hussein's top aide Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and a former engineer in Tikrit municipality, was suspected to be behind several car bombings on the Iraqi police and army";
  


• "Iraqi Soldiers from Alpha Company, 4th Battalion, 1st Iraqi Army Brigade foiled a terrorist car bomb attack while patrolling in the Ameriyah district of west Baghdad at around 6:00 p.m. July 3"; on the same day, Iraqi police successfully fought off an attack on a police station, capturing a quantity of weapons and munitions in the process;
  


• Forty suspects detained in a joint raid by Task Force Baghdad and Iraqi Army soldiers on July 3 in a area south of Yusufiyah;
  


• "U.S. and Iraqi troops swept through a western Baghdad neighborhood on Monday, arresting about 100 suspected insurgents in a fresh crackdown near the city's airport" over the Fourth of July weekend;
  


• "Task Force Baghdad Soldiers detained a suspected terrorist caught red-handed trying to detonate a roadside bomb, and captured two terror suspects trying to avoid a traffic control point in early morning operations July 4";
  


• On July 4, a weapons cache was seized by the US troops in a house west of Risalah; stupidly for the insurgents, the find was a result of a random knock-and-search operation and the house in question attracted attention because of the anti-Coalition writing on its walls;
  


• One insurgent killed while attempting to place a road-side bomb in Tal Afar and five suspects arrest in Mosul on 4 July;
  


• "Iraqi army soldiers detained 152 suspected terrorists July 4 during search operations in Baghdad. Coalition soldiers assisted the 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, in the early morning operation. Six Egyptians were among foreign fighters detained, officials said. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, detained two people suspected of terrorist activity July 4at a checkpoint in eastern Mosul. Iraqi police discovered an anti-aircraft missile system near Diwaniyah on July 4. An Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal team and a coalition quick-reaction force removed the device, described as a portable, shoulder-launched, low-altitude SA-7A missile system";
  


• 
  Two weapons caches uncovers in western Abu Ghraib district on July 1 and 4;
  


• "Terrorists fired upon Iraqi soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, patrolling in Abu Ghraib around 7:30 p.m. July 5. The Iraqi unit fought back and detained 12 of the attackers. The soldiers positively identified one of the men as a known bomb manufacturer";
  


• "U.S. and Iraqi soldiers conducted a cordon-and-search mission in the early-morning hours of July 6 to search for terrorist cells in western Baghdad... The result was the capture of seven detainees, five AK-47 assault rifles, two pistols, up to 20 fully loaded magazines, and assorted weaponry and documents, including material for making identification badges for U.S. contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, and possible imagery maps of the area. Not long after the first detainee was positively identified, he provided intelligence of a nearby meeting site. Upon searching the specified location, forces arrested a man and a woman who were making false KBR badges";
  


• On July 7, Iraqi and Task Force Freedom soldiers killed one terrorist and detained 24 suspects during operations in Mosul; they also killed another one and detained further 16 suspects around Tal Afar;
  


• "On July 7, Iraqi police patrolling in Baghdad's Ghazaliyah area stopped a suspected vehicle-borne IED carrying three suspected terrorists"; before the car could detonate, all three terrorist were killed in gunfire. "One compound guard reported he'd seen one terrorist trying to trigger a detonation device before being shot. Upon closer inspection of the vehicle, police discovered four 55-gallon drums connected to the car battery. The drums contained 600 pounds of homemade explosives";
  


• "U.S. Marines said on Saturday [9 July] they had launched a new counter-insurgency operation, the latest in a series of sweeps designed to root out militant bases in Iraq's Euphrates valley. Operation Scimitar involved about 500 U.S. troops and 100 Iraqis, making it about half the scale of Operation Sword and Operation Spear in the past three weeks. The military said the Marines had detained 22 suspected militants since the raid was launched in secret in the village of Zaidon 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Falluja on Thursday";
  


• On July 9 in Baghdad, American and Iraqi security forces defused explosives outside the Kuwaiti embassy, arrested five suspects in Abu Ghraib district and one wanted terrorist in the business district, and disabled four roadside bombs;
  


• "Kurdish security officials said Sunday [10 July] they had arrested suspects from six different terrorist groups that they believe help form wide insurgent training and support networks inside Iraq and have links with international terrorist organizations";
  


• Two suspects arrested in a terrorist safe house in Abu Ghraib district of Baghdad on July 10; more suspects arrested while staking out and photographing a checkpoint; and a major bomb defused in central Baghdad;
  


• Fourteen insurgents killed by the US Army in two separate incidents in northern Iraq on July 10 and 11;
  


• Thirteen individuals suspected of involvement in making and placing roadside bombs arrested in and around Tikrit on July 10 and 11;
  


• The capture of Abu Abd Al-Aziz, Al Zarqawi's number one man in Baghdad, on July 11.

Psychiatrist Graham W. Hoffman joined the Army Reserve after September 11 and has completed his second tour in Iraq, “treating mostly 20-something First Infantry Division soldiers (and some Iraqis, too) for post traumatic stress disorder." Says Hoffman: "The Iraqi civilians were very nice to us again, even though Samarra had a lot of insurgents for much of my time there. And the kids love us, especially the little girls, who seem to feel all this democratic change will be good for them in particular. The whole ‘mission’ is starting to feel like Peace Corps work, albeit you still have to be well armed. I am a political left-winger on most things, but on the Middle East business I think we are doing the right thing, mainly because that’s what all these Iraqi civilians kept telling me. Not sure why you don’t hear that kind of stuff on the media, except that most civilians there would consider it suicide to say good things about Americans on-camera.”

Iraqi people are slowly regaining their freedom - and their voice. It's their Fourth of July, too.

As always, if you have any tips for the future edition, please email goodnewsiraq “at” windsofchange “dot” net.

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IRAN REPORTS

• The US warned Iran not to restart enrichment and not to interfere in Iraqi affairs.

• Iran repeated that it will not abandon its pursuit of a full nuclear fuel cycle.

• A next-generation bunker buster is estimated to be able to bore ten times deeper into hardened WMD facilities and four prototypes are to be tested later this year. There's a certain country that rhymes with Iran where I hope we use these.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist in a British woman's home in Israel, to which she objected that they could have arrested him after the first time they shot him, but they simply stood there and emptied more bullets into the bastard. Can't see as how I'd do any different. Also, what's she doing getting drunk with terrorists in her house? Not a smart cookie, I'll wager.

• The British are allowing Islamic fascist vigilantes to have the run of Basra and intimidate the locals.

• Since terrorist innovations and best practices in Iraq often are copied elsewhere disturbingly quickly, it behooves us to note that the latest extremely deadly suicide attack in Iraq was a fuel-truck suicide mission. The death toll is 98 at the time of this writing.

• Geostrategy Direct says the US is now backing dissident groups in Syria to try and achieve regime change.

• The Israeli Defense Ministry says Iran could destroy Israel utterly with two nukes.

• Israel is considering resuming targeted assassinations of terror kingpins, lackeys and middle management in response to the Netanya mall bombing. Donald Rumsfeld suggested Iran might have been behind the attack.

• Syria is punishing Lebanon for its humiliating setbacks there with a trade blockade.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY & THE AMERICAS

• Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is training 2 million people to help repel any US invasion.

• The spiritual leader of the Virginian paintball jihad group was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

• A Canadian sleeper cell?

• A Greek man is to be tried in Mexico over his role in the smuggling of Iraqis with fake Greek passports into the US.

• The FBI is sounding the alarm over terrorist smuggling operations at the border.

• British Columbian ferries are taking new luggage-handling measures to combat terrorism.

• Colombia's President Uribe is seeking European support for an amnesty/disarmament scheme to neutralize right-wing paramilitaries who have torn his country apart. He already has American support for the plan.

• Terrorists may be scouting out New Jersey hospitals.

• Californians are questioning federal homeland security funding priorities after discovering that a Toyota dealership is named for security funding, but NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and major hospitals aren't.

• In Texas's Rio Grande Valley, Border Patrol agents are learning about the MS-13 menace.

• An Iranian-born, naturalized US citizen was ruled competent to be tried over his hoarding of enough cyanide to kill hundreds.

• A father and son in the Lodi case have agreed to deportation to Pakistan.

• A convert to Islam/robber's house was searched and a target list of California facilities was uncovered, including National Guard facilities and the Israeli consulate, two synagogues, and other Jewish targets.

• A commission recommended merging America's five nuclear weapons design and construction sites into one to better protect from terrorism. Sounds like a dumb idea to me. Sure, let's put all our nuclear eggs in a single basket!

• A CTA employee was arrested for making a fake bomb threat.

• Recriminations are flying over multiagency bungling in the off-again, on-again cellphone service in the tunnels.

• Congress was told that the nation's bioterrorism defenses were sorely lacking.

• Instant face recognition technology to protect you from terrorists: coming soon.

• Some police departments, in the face of federal indifference, are discouraging illegal immigrants from coming to their towns by arresting them for criminal trespassing.

• The DoJ, DHS and FBI jointly requested from the FCC the power to begin eavesdropping on in-flight broadband internet use within 10 minutes of obtaining court authorization to prevent terrorists from being able to coordinate hijackings or remotely activate bombs.

• The Patriot Act is set to be renewed with US lawmakers agreeing to make permanent some provisions and sunset others in 2009 or drop them entirely. In the wake of the London atrocities, provisions similar to the Patriot Act are coming to Europe, too, and although Greece seems wary, it'll probably come around in the end.

• The weaponization of space is imminent.

AFRICA

• Either Russia or ex-Soviet Bloc states are violating a truce in the Ivory Coast and providing arms to conflagrants there.

• Britain's Foreign Office minister is in Algeria for terrorism-related talks.

• Thousands displaced, scores murdered in cross-tribal warfare in Kenya.

• The GSPC released details on its attack on a Mauritanian border outpost.

• The Ugandan army killed several top members of the Lord's Resistance Army.

ASIA

• Some US officials are criticizing apparently failed British efforts to eradicate the poppy trade in Afghanistan.

• Turkish authorities warned that a female PKK suicide terrorist was on the loose and sure enough, she struck, killing at least 5.

• North Korea: back to the six-way talks.

• The Tamil Tigers threatened to resume the civil war in Sri Lanka. They complain that the government is killing off their guys.

• The Islamic insurgency rages on in Thailand.

EUROPE

• One of the London bombers is implicated in the Mike's Place bombing in Israel.

• Communist Romania's spy chief is being tried for siccing terrorist-for-hire Carlos the Jackal on dissidents.

• Egypt is dragging its feet on extraditing the biochemist who the UK suspects of involvement in the bombings, but is allowing UK intelligence to sit in on his interrogation. I hope they're hurting him.

• Undercover police sniper squads are tracking a dozen Al Qaeda terrorists in Britain. That is so cool.

• Irony: The stepfather of a Madrid 3/11 victim is accused of helping a London 7/7 mastermind flee.

• Britain's MI5 defended itself against various accusations of incompetence in the London bombings.

• The UK is set to adopt measures to ban visitors who are also banned by the United States and the EU after criticism of its relative laxity in this regard was accentuated by its admittal of suicide terrorism advocate and apologist Yusuf Qaradawi shortly after the London 7/7 bombings.

• Italian police launched a massive antiterrorist sweep, attempting to arrest more than 200 individuals on warrants.

• Blair is moving to tighten entry and deportation procedures.

• The London bombers hoped their explosions would form a "burning cross", according to information found on the Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe's website. Four planes on 9/11, four Madrid explosions on 3/11, four London explosions on 7/7...hmm.

• ETA is behind four bombings of a Spanish power plant, in a show of force designed to wring better concessions if the Socialists choose to negotiate with them.

• The Brits have much to learn from the French to control homegrown terrorists.

• Ireland may be home to an Al Qaeda base, according to the Justice Minister.

• A coffee-pot bomb exploded outside an Italian Culture Institute in Barcelona. The culprit is most likely anarchists. It exploded while being defused, killing a dog and injuring an officer.

• A three-week NATO drill began in Albania with the participation of 1500 American marines and navy men.

THE GLOBAL WAR

• Saudis continue to fund Al Qaeda with impunity.

• DIY suicide terrorism videos. Ugh.

• Osama bin Laden's job approval ratings are plummeting (or something).

• FBI agents' complaints about treatment of Gitmo detainees have been discredited by a high-level military investigation.

• The theory on four Al Qaeda escapees from a US detention camp in Afghanistan is that it was an inside job with help from some guards.

• The Treasury designated MIRA (Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia), a UK-based group, as a terrorist group.

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REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• The Security Watchtower provides a breakdown of the brief provided by MG Joseph Taluto - Commander of the Multinational Division North-Central Iraq and Task Force Liberty - about the security operations in that area.

• Wretchard reports on the down side of self-government and the British reactions to it. We've come a long ways from India.

• John Upperman is your Baghdaddy - check out his reports from Shomali.

• Michael Yon is back on Mosul and has another great dispatch - read Angels Among Us. You can also help support his work - he's an independent.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• Here are some of this week's reconstruction highlights.

IRAQI POLITICS

• Even as they continue to be targets of terror operations, Iraqi forces are slated to play a large part in securing polls for the elections in October. Today, Iraqi forces are assuming a greater role in security operations in many areas. US forces are increasingly encouraged by the ability of their Iraqi counterparts according to the Task Force Baghdad and 3rd Infantry Division Commander, MG William Webster.

• Iraq's Prime Minister al-Jaafari has stated he wants US forces withdrawal to be an Iraqi decision on an Iraqi timetable.

• The latest Carnival of the Liberated is up at Dean's World.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• British Defense Secretary John Reid hinted at a potential timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq over the next year. The withdrawal is likely predicated on the ability of the Iraqi government to take on more security responsibilities over that period, but the announcement may spur additional terrorist action in hopes of capitalizing on a perceived victory.

• The anti-Iraq forces have consistently focused their attacks on the successes of the Iraqi move toward democracy. Early on , when schools were being rebuilt, the terrorists attacked schools. When the dinar was being re-issued, the terrorists attacked banks. The recent killing of Egypt's envoy to Iraq sends a clear message about what is succeeding today.

• Iraq made the first official visit to Iran in the post-Hussein era, hoping to usher in an era of peace after decades of war and suspicion. If Iran is convinced to block the infiltration of insurgents over their border, the meeting could have significant practical benefits for Iraq.

ETCETERA

• Iraq's special tribunal has set the first formal charges against Saddam Hussein, setting the stage for his trial. The trial date may be announced this week.

• Major K posts (briefly) about the summer dust and rising temperatures, but says there are "big things" coming soon.

• Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire $5 purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!

• Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. And if you have a tip for a future Iraq Report, email us at MondayIraqReport(at)windsofchange.net.

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Much of my riding is commuting; TG and I have only one car between us (the Mighty Odyssey minivan) and find that we can preserve our sanity in Los Angeles traffic best by commuting on motorcycles. But I also sportride (ride somewhat quickly on the interesting windy roads in the Los Angeles and Central California hills) and tour.

I've typically owned sportbikes (motorcycles that are also used for roadracing, like a Suzuki GSXR-600) or sport-touring motorcycles (motorcycles that start as racing motorcycles but are redesigned for more comfort and with a focus on covering log distances, like my old Triumph Sprint ST).

They are aerodynamically designed - the sportbikes typically have top speeds in excess of 150 mph, and the sport-tourers typically will run about 130. This means the rider has to crouch down over the motorcycle; the most extreme production racing motorcycles...like the Ducati 998 or Yamaha R6...are affectionately known as "racks" for their uncomfortable riding positions.

In reality, even the most "squidly" (unsafe, irresponsible, unskilled) riders don't use the high-speed capabilities of their motorcycles to any meaningful extent. There is some benefit to the aerodynamics at fast highway speeds, but for riding in the city or on local roads - even the curve-ridden fun ones - the benefit is pretty limited.

Enter the motard.

There is a large class of motorcycles designed for riding in the dirt; the rider has to sit erect to be able to balance the bike in a constantly-changing traction environment and be able to control the bike in a wide range of attitudes.

They have long-travel suspensions to get the bike over obstacles, and engines optimized for low-speed torque rather than high-speed horsepower.

But they have skinny wheels with knobby tires designed for dirt and mud, instead of smaller wheels with wider street tires. Some genius came up with the idea of putting street wheels on a dir bike, and the motard was born.

Back in the 1980's, the ABC television show "Wide World of Sports" came up with the idea of a race that would pit motorcycle road racers against flat track riders against motocross riders, and called it "The Superbikers". They rode the precursors to supermotards on a course that was flat and bumpy dirt and asphalt. The sport took off in Europe, and is just in the last four or five years reaching the United States.

And so people started converting their dirt bikes to motards, and motorcycle manufacturers started following them.

I'd read about motards, and when my sore neck suggested that a more upright position would be useful, picked one up.

And now that I've been riding it for a week, I'm kicking myself for not getting one sooner.

Riding in traffic is far easier and safer then on a sportbike; I can see and be seen far easier because of the height and vertical posture. The wide handlebars, quick steering, and strong acceleration from a stop make threading through traffic far easier as well.

I've only done a little riding in the twisties with it, but have a feeling that I'll have far more fun on my 50hp motard - and possibly go as fast or faster - as on my 100hp sport-tourer. I think a day ride to San Francisco would be more tiring, but horses for courses, as they say.

It's getting almost 47 mpg, parks anywhere, uses less road, and gets me to work with a grin on my face.

If you ride, you ought to think about getting one...so meet Thalia, the MuZ of comedy and playfulness:

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Al Qaeda wishes to topple Middle Eastern governments, replace them with Islamist regimes, and consolidate them into the greater Islamic state. The model system of governance is the recently ousted Taliban regime of Afghanistan, where the strict law of Shariah ruled.

Osama bin Laden explicitly stated the establishment of Islamist regimes is main goal of al Qaeda in his fatwas of the 1990’s. The lack of religious purity is the main issue al Qaeda has with Middle Eastern regimes. Here are three quotes from his 1996 fatwa (there are more declarations such as this in this fatwa and in others; this is merely a sampling):

• Through its course of actions the regime has torn off its legitimacy: (1) Suspension of the Islamic Shari'ah law and exchanging it with man made civil law. The regime entered into a bloody confrontation with the truthful Ulamah and the righteous youths (we sanctify nobody; Allah sanctify Whom He pleaseth)…

• As stated by the people of knowledge, it is not a secret that to use man made law instead of the Shari'a and to support the infidels against the Muslims is one of the ten "voiders" that would strip a person from his Islamic status (turn a Muslim into a Mushrik, non believer status)…

• Priorities of the Islamic work are lost while the blasphemy and polytheism continue its grip and control over the Ummah. We should be alert to these atrocious plans carried out by the Ministry of Interior [of Saudi Arabia]. The right answer is to follow what have been decided by the people of knowledge, as was said by Ibn Taymiyyah (Allah's mercy upon him): "people of Islam should join forces and support each other to get rid of the main "Kufr" who is controlling the countries of the Islamic world, even to bear the lesser damage to get rid of the major one, that is the great Kufr".

If Professor Pape accepts bin Laden’s rhetoric that the US occupation of the Middle East and Israel’s occupation of Palestine is fueling their anger at face value, then why does he ignore the Islamist motivations? Why does he ignore the numerous statements of those who committed suicide bombings that are replete with references to the Islamist cause? Does he believe this is just window dressing and Muslims are blowing themselves up for the homeland? And how does he explain the fact that Muslims outside of countries at war repeated volunteer for suicide attacks? What nationalist claim do Muslims in Northern Africa have in Iraq, Afghanistan, London, Spain, Saudi Arabia…?

Professor Pape and others who promote this line of reasoning are engaging in a dangerous pursuit. They lend credibility to the belief that America is the root cause of terrorism, and the solution is to disengage from the Middle East. By ignoring the real agenda of the Islamists - the establishment of a seven century Caliphate stretching from Spain to Indonesia that, armed with today’s deadly weapons, will eventually confront the unpure world - Professor Pape promotes appeasement of the worst order.

Also Read:

...Grim's take on Pape over at The Fourth Rail. On appeasing the terrorists: "The mass of men will live and die in tyranny. The colors Western palatte -- liberty, freedom of thought and speech, the dignity and strength of the individual against the force of the state -- will be washed from most of the world. That is a viable position, but it is not the liberal position."

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1. Made a gross error (link is to a grab of his site by Martin Kramer) in his post - a la Pape - blaming Islamic terrorism on Western occupation (he suggested that 9/11 was a reaction to the massacre at Jenin...which not only never happened, but didn't happen in 2002, well after 9/11/2001);

2. When Martin Kramer gutted him on his mistakes, Cole "Winston Smithed" his mistake (changed it without note or comment) and then posted a lame apologia when he was caught out. I like the term "Winston Smithed" - or just "Winstoned" and encourage people to use it often when appropriate;

3. When Kramer busted him for doing that, he posted this request to the Kossaks:

Please do up an oppo research diary on Martin Kramer. Who is he? Where did he come from? When he was head of the Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, to whom did he report in the Israeli intelligence community? Who funded his work on Hizbullah? Was he fired from heading the Dayan Center? How does he suddenly show back up in the US after a 20-year absence with a book that blames unpreparedness for 9/11 on US professors of Middle East Studies instead of on the Israeli Mossad and the US CIA/FBI? What was his role in getting up the Iraq War and in advising the US on the wrong-headed policies that have gotten so many Americans killed? Who pays his salary, now, exactly? What are his links with AIPAC, and with the shadowy world of far-right Zionist think tanks and dummy organizations?

Basically, he asked the mob to go burn Kramer down. Note that I'm aware of Kramer's interest in compiling a dossier of writings by Cole and others; I think there's a big difference in compiling a catalog of someone's work - for which they are responsible, as I'm responsible for my words here - and digging into the career of an opponent with the clear intent of unearthing damaging information.

When called on that bad behavior, he simply edited it out of existence.

Kramer, on the other hand, did a hysterical job of creating a 'research diary' on himself, while skewering the pretentious professor.

Look, I think I've learned my own lesson on tone from my meeting with Adam Bellow (and note that I've got a draft post tying him to Valentino Rossi, so watch out). I read Cole every day, and I'm sure that I've learned a few things in the time I've been reading him.

Sadly, one of those is that he's not really a very nice guy.

Another is that he deserves to be mocked - primarily because of his claim to authority in his arguments. Look, there are people in the blogs who are real experts in things (Daniel Drezner, Larry Solum), and what's interesting is how seldom (if ever) they wave the flag of their academic authority, and how often Professor Cole waves his.

As another voice in the gentle babble of the blogosphere, Cole's as entitled to his positions and arguments as the rest of us. Let's just leave it at that.

But it would be nice if he played by the rules the rest of us play by - and cut out the attacks on people rather than arguments, and most of all realized that when he Winstons, the thing that gets erased first is his own credibility.

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The Vizier returned to the terrified spice-seller later on, and reassured him that he did not wish to inflict any penalty upon him. He continued to treat the spice-seller with respect and generosity thereafter, and the man's demeanor toward Samuel changed. The curses became praise, and blessings.

When the king again noticed the seller of spices, he was astonished and upset that Samuel had not carried out his command. His Vizier was summoned for an explanation - and it had better be a good one.

Brought before the king, the Vizier Samuel Ibn Negrela relied:

"But your excellency, I have indeed executed your sentence. I have torn out his angry tongue, and given him instead a kind one."

(Based on a passage written by H. Garetz in 1860, and included in A book of Jewish Thoughts by Dr. J. H. Hertz, Ed. Montreal: CJC © 1917)

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• On Ahmadinejad's Victory

• I'll try not to gloat

• Did I mention the Iranian election was a fraud?

• Saif al-Adel, Zarqawi, al-Qaeda, and Iran

• Special Analysis: Iran and 9/11

Joe did a piece in March 2005 summarizing Iran's overall strategy, of which their cooperation with al-Adel et. al. is just one component. See: Iran's Great Game. I've also done a number of other pieces re: Iran's activities in Iraq.

Winds of Change.NET has a topic archive covering Iran, and a partial topic archive covering al-Qaeda that was started later and is still missing many of our earlier posts. If you look to the right-hand sidebar, you'll see a number of other topics we cover, along with the number of posts in each category.

Enjoy your visit!

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This should come as no surprise, as al Qaeda has directed most of its mass casualty attacks against the Muslim world. Muslims who to not adhere to the strict and oppressive brand of the Salafi/Wahabi Islam are demeaned worthy of death. Women and children are not excluded, and are often targeted in mosques. Deroy Murdock documents the mosque attacks in Afghanistn and Iraq (hat tip Joe Katzman):

In Afghanistan:

• June 1, 2005: A suicide bomber blasted the funeral of Mullah Abdul Fayaz, a moderate cleric, at his eponymous mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He killed Kabul’s police chief and 20 others, while wounding 50.

• January 20, 2005: A suicide bomber exploded inside the Ghocha Park Mosque in Sheberghan, injuring 21, six reportedly in critical condition.

• January 16, 2005: An anti-personnel mine went off at the Sal Metra mosque in Urozgan province, wounding two worshippers.

• June 30, 2003: An earlier bombing at Fayaz’s mosque injured 16.

In Iraq:

• May 23, 2005: A car bomb at a Baghdad mosque killed two and wounded 22, including 11 children.

• May 19, 2005: A bomb at a Saydiya mosque killed two and hurt five.

• April 22, 2005: A car bomb at a Baghdad mosque disrupted Friday prayers, killing nine and wounding 26.

• March 10, 2005: A suicide bomber detonated himself during a funeral at a Mosul mosque, murdering 47 people and injuring at least 101.

• February 18, 2005: On Ashoura, Shiites’ holiest day, homicide bombers attacked two Baghdad mosques, killing 25 and wounding 30.

• February 18, 2005: A car bomb killed eight and hurt 10 at an Iskandariyah mosque.

• August 26, 2004: Mortar shells pummeled a Najaf mosque, leaving 27 dead and 63 injured.

• March 2, 2004: Homicide bombers, mortars, and hidden explosives at mosques in Baghdad and Karbala killed 181 and wounded 573 Ashoura worshippers.

• August 29, 2003: A car bomb outside a Najaf mosque killed 85 and injured 140.

Add the 386 killed and 970 injured in Iraq to the Afghan figures above: The terrorist pals of Guantanamo’s al-Qaeda and Taliban residents have butchered 407 Muslims and injured 1,059 more in these mosque attacks alone.

When Muslims watch al Qaeda murder their own women and children and destroy their places of worship, they will naturally begin to question the methods and ideology of al Qaeda. This is a major facet of the ideological struggle against al Qaeda. Direct engagement in the Middle East forces al Qaeda to expose their true nature. As they are unsuccessful at dislodging American forces with suicide tactics, they are forces to hit softer targets - places where women, children, the infirm - all fellow Muslims gather.

al Qaeda has a problem. As it is unable to successfully engage America (or even local Muslim nations) in open combat, it must resort to the tactics of terror. Al Qaeda has perfected the design and use of the suicide bomb, which are now placed on cars, trucks, tractors, canines, boats and airplanes.

The purpose of suicide bombs is to instill fear and despair among those “collaborating” with the West. As the polling shows, the opposite result is achieved. But you don’t need to look at polling data to see that Muslims are beginning to question the purpose of the Islamists.

Hassan Mohammed, whose 13-year-old son Alaa also died, swore at insurgents for attacking civilians. "Why do they attack our children? They just destroyed one US Humvee, but they killed dozens of our children," he said as women screamed, slapped their faces and beat themselves over the head. "What sort of a resistance is this? It's a crime," he added.

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Religious Hate:

• JK: Van Gogh's murder is making statements at trial, noting that he murdered the film-maker in cold blood in the name of his religion and clearly stating that he'd do it again if he had the chance. Andrew Sullivan offers a couple of quotes, plus some trenchant analysis. Commander Salamander offers more quotes still - and they just get more chilling.

• JK: Peaktalk, meanwhile, offers a range of posts. A recap of the crime, the disturbing items found in Bouyeri's dwelling, and a psychiatirc report lead the way. He then follows with some coverage of Bouyeri's trial, and the even more disturbing consequence in the Netherlands, where the net effect has been to successfully silence Van Gogh's film about Women in Islam. Submission, indeed.

• An Islamic Jihad member blew himself up outside a mall in Netanya killing four women, two of them teenage girls.

• In the aftermath of the London bombings, police are on high alert for hate crimes:
  

  On Sunday, two white men threw petrol into the letterbox of the Shajala Mosque in Birkenhead, northern England, and ignited it. The assistant imam, Boshir Ullah was trapped inside in his upstairs bedroom as the fire blazed on the landing outside. Fire crews pulled him to safety from an upstairs window and extinguished the blaze, the Independent newspaper reported.
  
  The previous day, when members of the town's predominantly Bangladeshi Muslim community went to the mosque, they were greeted by individuals shouting: "Paki, Paki." Also on Sunday, in Nottingham, a 48-year-old man from Pakistan died after what police are treating as, a racially motivated attack.
  
  On Saturday, windows were smashed at the Mazhirul Ulooms mosques in Mile End, in London's East End, and a firebomb attack was carried out on a mosque in Wellington, Shropshire, in the Midlands.

• A Muslim woman in Florida has filed suit against her employer after being told she wouldn't be allowed to wear her headscarf to work.

• Hindu extremists attacked a Christian gathering in Rajasthan, forcing the participants out and seriously wounding one person. The attackers belonged to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), both extremist Hindu paramilitary groups.

• Four mosques were vandalized in New Zealand last Sunday, in what appears to be retaliation for the London bombings.

• A church in Virginia was set on fire and anti-gay graffiti was spray-painted on the walls of the building.

  The vandalism contained anti-gay messages and a declaration that United Church of Christ members were sinners. The graffiti's message appeared to be a reference to the national church's decision last week to endorse gay and lesbian marriages, Shultz said.

Hateful Seethings:

• The head of the London Center for Islamic History said that there are no such things as civilians in Islam and that with the London bombings, Al-Qaeda "rubbed the noses of the world's eight most powerful countries in the mud."

• A prominent Muslim leader (who's also the imam of the Islamic Center in Manhattan and has been called "the face of the next generation of Muslims in America") gave a series of interviews on Egyptian television proclaiming that a lot of Americans believe 9/11 was fabricated to enable the Forging of a "New World Order", zionists control the U.S. government and Jews control the media thus preventing Muslims from "spreading our ideas." But regardless of these obstacles that the mean zionists throw at everyone, someday we'll see a Muslim White House, inshallah.

• American students in Australia have been facing verbal abuse and hostility prompting some of them to quit their university studies abroad.

• JK: On June 16/05, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund annual conference took place in Chicago. The official convention program lists Toyota as a sponsor of an "Education Luncheon" at which The Nation of Islam's leader Louis Farrakhan spoke. Farrakhan is a noted proponent of ethnic hatred and anti-Semitism, and Toyota is listed as a "Platinum" sponsor of the conference, a designation reportedly costing $100,000. NLPC's Peter Flaherty writes: "It is more than objectionable that Toyota, a foreign company, would subsidize racial animosity in this country."

• In Poland, a member of parliament has openly called for a “zero tolerance policy” towards gays:

  “We can’t let them show their faces in public and go on telling how abnormal they are,” said Wierzejski who is a member of the Independence/Democracy Group of the Parliament..

  Polish Gays Plead to Europe for Help in Combating Hate - Action Requested After Outburst by Polish MEP

Race and Culture:

• On Holocaust Remembrance Day, two Dutch DJs promoted a dance party with this flash movie. They later said it was a joke and they were sorry. One of the "creators of the movie" commented on the Discarded Lies thread, explaining that it was just a "sick sense of humour" and they were not racist. When advised to make reparations for the harm they caused to the Jewish community, he said that would be "even sicker."

• Anti-immigrant sentiments and racism are increasing in Portugal along with an increase in neo-Nazi activities.

  “Immigration and crime almost always go together,” said Mario Machado of the far-right National Front, adding he was “proud to be white” and urging the government to expel Portuguese citizens of African origin or ancestry. Machado was among the organisers of a demonstration which brought several hundred skinheads to the streets of Lisbon recently, prompting a worried President Jorge Sampaio to show solidarity with African residents.

• The offices of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine were spray painted with swastikas and nazi symbols were scratched on the doors and walls, in the latest incident of increasing antisemitism in the Ukraine. And in Moscow, Neo-Nazis stormed a Jewish shop screaming “Beat the kikes, save Russia!”. The district where the attack took place is the site of a major synagogue and has experienced previous waves of attacks on Jews.

• The French like us just a little less than we like them but Reuters points out that anti-Europeanism flourishes on U.S. right. I don't think this is as serious as the anti-Americanism that has been flourishing in Europe for a few decades.

• A Bulgarian fascist party that won parliamentary representation, is attacking Jews on its website:

  A list containing the names of 1 500 Bulgarian Jews was published on the Web page of the coalition Attack, announced the Macedonian agency Makfax. The article reads that Jews are “dangerous race infected with plaque, which deserves eradicating since the very day of birth”.

• While $3 billion in aid has been promised to the Palestinians, official PA text books cite the ´Protocols´ as a historical document, they don't recognise Israel as a sovereign state and Islam and Muslims are presented as superior to all other religions.

• Japan racism 'deep and profound'

  An independent investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem.

• National Alliance is using racist video games to recruit teenagers.

  The player in Ethnic Cleansing isn't killing just anyone -- he's killing all non-whites.
  ...
  "The whole intent of making this video game was to make a racially provocative video game and if it does help promote the separation of the races, then it's been positive and that's what we want," said Shawn Walker, chairman of National Alliance.

A Hopeful Note:

• In the United States and Canada, mosques confine women behind a curtain or in another room during prayers, the majority of worshipers are men and a third of mosques do not permit women on governing boards. But change may be in the air: American Muslim groups urge mosque rights for women

• A recent Pew survey measuring attitudes in Muslim countries found that support for bin Laden and suicide attacks has declined. In addition, a majority of the people surveyed in Morocco and Pakistan and almost half of the ones surveyed in Indonesia and Turkey, said that Islamic extremism poses a great threat to their country.

• Also on the good news front, some Kuwaitis are openly talking back to Islamist preachers when they preach anti-American hate in the mosque.

• While the official PA television continues to spread hate, Israeli and independent Palestinian television stations are simultaneously broadcasting The Shape of the Future, a documentary exploring possible solutions to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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Part of the reason I've argued for so long (in the face of some heated opposition) that there are some common intellectual and historical roots between the New Left (which is really the mainstream left today) and Islamism is because - in part - the New Left has it's roots in the decades of terror in the late 1800's and in the philosophies that shaped them.

From Malaesta's "Propaganda by deed" in 1876 to the Wall Street Bombing in 1920 (arguably the first car bomb), anarchist & socialist 'true believers' - and those who fell into their wake - killed czars and kings as well as industrialists and those unlucky enough to be standing close by.

The response within Europe was brutal, ruthless, and doubtless - by our standards - impossibly unjust.

But the movement had put down roots, and as it grew ... through Fanon and Guevara, who became the icons of the praxis-oriented members of the New Left in Columbia, Port Huron, and Paris.

The levels of violence in Europe in the 1890's were far lower than those we're seeing in the Middle East today, and the intensity was lower as well. But we live in a faster-moving, more connected world, and the tools for big explosions don't just come from Nobel's factories any more.

I think it's worth exploring this history a little bit, and seeing what it was that brought on - and most important, what brought down - the levels of public violence. I'd encourage folks to add what they know, and will post on it again in the near future.

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Whatever you want to call it," Stone said.

"It was state-supported mass murder, using civilians as missiles," said Hitchens, a columnist for Vanity Fair and The Nation.

Stone wagged his head and continued. "The studios bought television stations," he said. "Why? Why did the telecommunications bill get passed at midnight, a hidden bill at midnight? The Arabs have a point! They're going to be joined by the people who objected in Seattle, and the usual ten per cent who are against everything, and it's going to be, like, twenty-five per cent of this country that's against the new world order. We need a trustbuster like Teddy Roosevelt to take the television stations away from the film companies and give them back to the people!" There was more applause, and a few uncertain murmurs. "Does anybody make a connection between the 2000 election" - for the Presidency - "and the events of September 11th?" he asked, and added cryptically, "Look for the thirteenth month!" He went on to say that the Palestinians who danced at the news of the attack were reacting just as people had responded after the revolutions in France and Russia....

Stone and large segments of the cultural Left share this much with their Islamofascist co-belliegerents. Just when you think it's impossible for them to crawl any lower, they manage to surprise you.

Read the rest, if you're so inclined. And remember two things:

1. Remember that the quote above is from November 2002.
2. Remember my prediction up top. Oliver Stone has been chosen by Paramount Studios to make a 9/11 movie.

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I remember reading an oped in the LA Times suggesting that the tabloids had deliberately laid off of Arnie because of a business arrangement between him and their publisher , and dismissing it as implausible.

It's not so implausible now, and the Gov. had better get his shoes cleaned quickly.

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Russia, as has become painfully clear of late, is increasingly sliding more and more into a quasi-authoritarian atmosphere, a trend that events like Beslan have only served to accelerate. Sri Lanka, moreover, is regarded as being only "partially free" according Freedom House's 2004 survey. Particularly in the case of the former, the opinion of the general public towards the war in Chechnya is simply irrelevant to its conduct and has become even more so during the spike in Chechen suicide bombings from 2002-2004. There have also been suicide bombings carried out by al-Qaeda's Uzbek allies against the Karimov regime in Uzbekistan and Musharraf's military government in Pakistan as well as by the Pakistani sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi against Pakistani Shi'ites or the Muslim Ansar al-Islam against the Muslim Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Now I more than agree with Pape that Islamic fundamentalism is not the sole cause of suicide bombings, but attributing occupation as the cause of suicide bombings simply does not work given that there's a lot more cases of foreign occupation in the world than there are suicide bombings, even in cases of Muslim-on-Muslim occupation such as Syria in Lebanon, Morocco in Western Sahara, and (depending on who you ask) Sudan in Darfur.

The idea that suicide bombing is linked to nationalist rather than cultural or religious aspirations also strikes me as similarly wrong-headed. The one thing that all the groups that use suicide bombings as tactic have from the PKK to the Tamil Tigers to al-Qaeda is that regardless of ideology all of these groups maintain the same quasi-totalitarian and almost cultic mindset amongst its members. The PKK's beliefs concerning "Apo" (imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Occalan) and his immediate family result in quasi-deification as its membership live in Year 0-style society and Tamil Tigers supremo Prabhakaran borrows heavily from Mao in managing his fiefdom in northern Sri Lanka.

I also tend to take rather strong issue with the whole idea that occupation causes terrorism and that the only (and inevitable) relief for it is withdrawl. For one thing, this whole idea is ahistorical and is directly contradicted in that Arab hegemony has existed throughout much of the Middle East for over a thousands of years with relatively little resistance for the native populations if one accepts the Crusades as being mostly an external phenomenon. The Republic of India more or less remains the Mughal Empire and its suzerainties administered by other means, the People's Republic of China is more or less the Qing-era empire, and if you want a more contemporary example, is there any serious resistance today to the reintegration of the Confederacy back into the Union by force of arms?

Moreover, it isn't immediately clear to me (or Joe) that terrorists are always lashing out foreign occupation. This is particularly in the case of al-Qaeda, which describes its goals in the same document Pape cites as follows:

"We can describe the international system...as a spider web. And whereas it is also all interlinked like a spider web, even a light wind is sufficient to tear apart this web."

These are not the goals of a separatist, national independence, or anti-occupation movement, which explains a lot if you understand that there were Arabs involved in Beslan and Moroccans and Pakistanis involved in 3/11 and 7/7, which makes even less sense if you believe that occupation causes terrorism and the US occupation of Iraq was the motivating factor in both attacks.

Other examples:

• The kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen in 1998
• The suicide bombing that targeted German tourists in Djerba in April 2002
• The suicide bombing of the French tanker Limburg in October 2002
• Bangladesh cinema bombings in December 2002
• Suicide bombings against Turkish synagogues in Istanbul in November 2003

And so on and so forth. Pape's thesis strikes me as one of those things that you have to be an academic in order to believe unless you dumb down the term occupation to the point where you accept al-Qaeda's definitions and make the word nothing short of meaningless.

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"The tamarins were fairly cooperative but still showed a healthy amount of self-interest: over repeated encounters with fellow monkeys, the typical tamarin pulled the lever about 40 percent of the time. Then Hauser and Chen heightened the drama. They conditioned one tamarin to always pull the lever (thus creating an altruistic stooge) and another to never pull the lever (thus creating a selfish jerk). The stooge and the jerk were then sent to play the game with the other tamarins. The stooge blithely pulled her lever over and over, never failing to dump a marshmallow into the other monkey's cage. Initially, the other monkeys responded in kind, pulling their own levers 50 percent of the time. But once they figured out that their partner was a pushover (like a parent who buys her kid a toy on every outing whether the kid is a saint or a devil), their rate of reciprocation dropped to 30 percent -- lower than the original average rate. The selfish jerk, meanwhile, was punished even worse. Once her reputation was established, whenever she was led into the experimenting chamber, the other tamarins "would just go nuts," Chen recalls. "They'd throw their feces at the wall, walk into the corner and sit on their hands, kind of sulk."

So... chimpanzees rape and murder, and capuchins steal, exploit the gullible, and trade money for sex.

Anyone out there still up for all that "noble savage" b.s.?

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In Salafi strategic thinking, you are allowed to criticize the 10% of the action to legitimize its 90%. Al Maqdisi [Barqawi] indeed stated that his “brother” Abu Mus’aab is going “too far” in waging “amaliyat istishadiya” (suicide operations) without a central plan. When you follow the interview thoroughly (and it can be done by going back to the tape), you understand that the main message sent by al Maqdisi is to regroup, re-center and articulate better road maps. The bottom line of his media burst is to address all Salafis worldwide and retrace the path. If you follow the bigger picture of the inner world of the Jihadists, through hours of tedious listening to the chat rooms and following the debates on the web, you’d understand that the masters of the movement worldwide, are perturbed. Since the democratic elections in Afghanistan and Iraq, waves of questions are fusing the Wahabi universe. “How come millions of Muslims are casting their votes, even after we show them the right path,” shouts Jihadi in the chat rooms. In response, Zarqawi sinks further in boundless Terror. But the mentors of the movement are concerned: There is a problem in the mind of the Jihadists. One of the “mentors” steps in.

In short, al Qaeda's strategy is not working very well. Particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the majorities reject al Qaeda's violence and ideology, and demonstrate this at the ballot box. Ideologues like Barqawi recognize that without clearly defined goals that have a chance of succeeding, the abject violence such as that conducted by Zarqawi is a drain on resources and support from the Muslim world.

Barqawi offers Zarqawi sound strategic advice – husband your forces and strike at a time and place where the proper impact can be achieved. But Zarqawi views his words as an effort to divide al Qaeda:

"do not follow the path of Satan that leads to your destruction. Beware, our noble sheik, of the trick of God's enemies to lure you to drive a wedge in the ranks of the mujahedeen… why would you make for the enemy a path against you brothers?"

This statment can be interpreted as a warning to Barqawi not to interfere in the direction of his campaign to bleed Iraq dry. Barqawi should take care as Zarqawi is a ruthless operator. Killing a fellow jihadi perceived as creating divisions within jihad is certainly not out of character for Zarqawi. He sanctions the murder of Muslim children on a regular basis in Iraq. Murders like this one yesterday:

"Twenty-four Iraqi children were killed by a suicide car bomber targeting US soldiers as they handed out chocolates in a Baghdad neighbourhood they had entered to warn of a possible attack. Some 20 more children were wounded in the blast, while a US soldier died and three were injured, hospital and US sources said."

In some better news:

al Qaeda in Iraq admits to the capture of Abu Abd Al-Aziz, the ‘emir of Baghdad'. al Qaeda claims he died during capture, and refutes claims he is a senior commander, but states he is a mere brigade commander (usually a single cell or several cells). Evan Kohlmann has the full translation of the al Qaeda press release.

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IRAN REPORTS

• Global Security Newswire says “Iran to take new direction in Nuclear and Foreign Policy, President-Elect Says”. Is this the ‘new’ direction: If EU does not recognize Iran’s right to enrichment, it will enrich uranium. If the EU recognizes Iran’s right to enrichment, it will enrich uranium. No enrichment, No deal. Any questions?

• Demonstrations for the popular jailed and hunger striking dissident Akbar Ganji led to clashes with Iranian security. See here and here for more details.
  
• Sunni Group in Iran (Organisation of God's Soldiers for Sunni Mujahideen) beheads Iranian Security agent.

IRAQ REPORTS

• al Qaeda in Iraq field general now out of circulation. Abu Abd al-Aziz, the 'Emir of Baghdad', has been captured.

• Minister says US can begin handing control to Iraqis in quiet provinces. Iraq’s 6th Regiment, 5th Brigade was activated for duty.

• Yet more terrorist attacks against infidels…err…Muslims

• Zarqawi defends attacks on Shias…Denies attacks on Christians…then what’s this?

• Mark Yost offers this week’s Must Read column: Why They Hate Us (Register…you’ll thank us.)

AFGHANISTAN REPORTS

• Senior Afghani Pro-Government cleric murdered.

• Karzai fingers Iran & Pakistan for having intelligence agents within Afghan Government.

• Four prisoners escape US prison in Afghanistan.

• And a story worth repeating: How the Shepherd saved the SEAL.

THE MIDDLE EAST

• Islamic Jihad suicide bomber kills four at Israeli mall (now ten murders by IJ since Sharm Al Sheik summit in February). Israel signals an end of restraint, calling for a ‘root canal’ on Islamic Jihad. In the first counter-operation with IDF in pursuit, 2 PA Police officers who fired on Israeli troops were killed. While Condoleezza Rice demanded that Syria cease support for Islamic Jihad, President Bush rescinded aid to PA for non-compliance with terror agreement…and yet restored it in the next paragraph.

• Pro-Syrian Lebanese Defense Minister survives bomb blast in a Christian neighborhood. The Defense Minister just happens to be the son-in-law of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. Imagine that.
  
• Arab media reaction to London bombings: Britain, Expel Extremism.

• Kuwait Raises Level of Alert on al Qaeda attack fears.

AMERICAN DOMESTIC SECURITY

• Michael Chertoff announces a Six-Point Agenda for refocusing US Department of Homeland Security. Point #3 is especially noteworthy: Strengthen border security and interior enforcement and reform immigration processes. Chertoff provided a welcome lesson in leadership with the following: "Over time, as intelligence warrants and progress allows, DHS will be open to change. We will be straight forward. If something goes wrong, we will not only acknowledge it, we will be the first to fix the error." Here, here.

• US sees 175% increase in ‘Other Than Mexican’ (OTM) arrests for illegal entry at the US/Mexican border in 2004. 119,000 of the 919,000 detained were OTM’s.

• Permanent Patriot Act proposed.

THE AMERICAS

• Bombing in the streets of Port of Spain, Trinadad, injures four, one more shot. [Note: 80% of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports come from Tobago.]

AFRICA

• Is a Sudan truce really coming?

ASIA & AUSTRALIA

• 150 Australian SpecOps troops bound for Afghanistan for al Qaeda hunt.

• The Stars align as Pakistan & China cooperate militarily… Lest we forget China’s other friend. American Foreign Policymakers, remember, have not been idle in the shade and the G4 attempt to add more members to the UN Security Debate Society also failed.

• Thailand readies for war to the south as guerilla warfare persists in the Muslim-majority southern provinces.

• NoKor Returns to Six-Nation talks demanded by President Bush…meanwhile, back at the ranch, construction resumes on two nuclear facilities.
  
• ‘Internal power struggle’ delays Pentagon’s annual China report.

EUROPE

• Denmark threatened as ‘next on terror attack list’ by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades.

• American Future points us to Daniel Pipes who writes of Weak Brits and a Strong France, and also highlights a French journalist who also gets it (and hopefully speaks for more French citizens than we hear of). France’s intelligence community definitely gets it, even if the rest of the French government, including schools, may not.

• Is British government funding a visit by Suicide Bombing promoter??? (See above.)

• Colombian President tells Spain: Terrorism not defeated with negotiation. (Next stop on the speaking tour?)
  
• ETA bombs Spanish power plant.

• Van Gogh Murderer Confesses and refuses defense at trial.

• Amsterdam Teen arrested with Bomb after intercepted phone calls indicated he intended to target conservative MP Geert Wilders.

• EU Justice official proposes that all EU states create national anti-terrorism centers (like France, oddly).

THE GLOBAL WAR

• London – Tel Aviv bombing connection via Chinese explosives?

• London bombers traced back to Pakistani camps…just like the Lodi, California crew.

• It’s a ‘New’ kind of war, AP says, quoting experts. Looks like someone has not been reading the Winds of War reports.

We try to close on a lighter note if possible. This Thursday, we close with a whole new category…

Moonbat Magnet Special

• Global Warming an even bigger threat to National Security than terrorism. (See…it really is a new kind of war.)

Also, for a first-thing-in-the-morning daily news brief that also includes a healthy share of MilBlogger reports direct from the field, go read Mrs. Greyhawk's daily Dawn Patrol (yesterday's is here) over at The Mudville Gazette. It's a consistently outstanding collection of topical links that sets the table for the developing news of the day (with a decidedly Military/NatSec focus). You'll likely make it a daily read as I have.

Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know.

For ongoing tips, email "MondayWindsOfWar", over here @windsofchange.net.

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TAC: That would seem to run contrary to a view that one heard during the American election campaign, put forth by people who favor Bush’s policy. That is, we need to fight the terrorists over there, so we don't have to fight them here.

RP: Since suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism, the use of heavy military force to transform Muslim societies over there, if you would, is only likely to increase the number of suicide terrorists coming at us.

Since 1990, the United States has stationed tens of thousands of ground troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and that is the main mobilization appeal of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. People who make the argument that it is a good thing to have them attacking us over there are missing that suicide terrorism is not a supply-limited phenomenon where there are just a few hundred around the world willing to do it because they are religious fanatics. It is a demand-driven phenomenon. That is, it is driven by the presence of foreign forces on the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. The operation in Iraq has stimulated suicide terrorism and has given suicide terrorism a new lease on life.

Now this is an interesting statement on a number of levels, and one I want to think hard about. He ties suicide bombing closely to nationalist (i.e. territorial) aspirations, not to cultural ones.

This seems like one of those "cleavage" notions; your perceptions on this issue will drive you to one side or the other of a deep political divide. If you believe this is relatively tightly tied to nationalist aspirations, then the terrorists become part and parcel of the admirable line of those fighting for their homelands. If not, it's the Clash of Cultures, and a global war.

I've suggested for a while that there are some fuzzy bridges between the two; that Franz Fanon and Che Guevera are connected to Qutb and Osama bin Laden.

I'll also suggest that - since I now take the words of our enemies very seriously - you go look at Bin Laden's original 1998 fatwa; which was based largely on his outrage at the US war against Iraq in the first Gulf War, and on the presence of U.S. military on the Arabian Peninsula.

Personally, I'm inclined to believe that there would have been another causus belli for the Islamists had it not been this. But I think this is an interesting question, and look forward to reading the book.

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"Abu Hamed whose 12-year-old son Mohammed was killed, said: "I was at home. I heard the explosion. I rushed outside to find my son. I only found his bicycle." He found his son in the hospital morgue. "I recognized him from his head. The rest of the body was completely burnt." Among the young bodies at the morgue, some headless or missing limbs, two children still clutched blue chocolate wrappers."

Contemplate that picture for a minute. This was done deliberately, knowingly, by someone who could see clearly what was in front of him and knew exactly what he was doing.

"You can only call the ghouls who did this evil" says Trent.

Too true. Hostes Humani Generis.

So what do you call the folks who can't (or won't) understand the concept that these people are evil, or deny that evil exists? And what role do they play in all this?

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"U.S. officials say the commandos kept up a running fire fight with their pursuers for more than two miles. The known survivor recalls seeing two of his friends shot. At one point he blacked out, possibly from a mortar round landing close by. When he regained consciousness, two of his teammates - Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz, 25, and Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29 - were dead, and a third had vanished in the darkness and fog. The surviving SEAL dragged himself at least another mile up into the mountains. It was there he was found four days later by Gulab the shepherd."

Gulab took him in after an initial tense standoff, and brought him home. Shortly thereafter, a village council was called. The story doesn't say, but the purpose appears to have been to warn the village and, by making the American's presence clear, to obligate the whole village to defend him.

"The Taliban was not so agreeable. That night the fighters sent a message to the villagers: "We want this infidel." A firm reply from the village chief, Shinah, shot back. "The American is our guest, and we won't give him up as long as there's a man or a woman left alive in our village." As a precaution, the villagers moved the injured commando out of Gulab's house and hid him in a stable overnight, until it was safe for Gulab to make the six-hour trek down to the U.S. base at Asadabad and report that the SEAL - by then the subject of an intense search - was alive. Sometime later, Gulab went back to his village and then returned to Asadabad with the commando, this time reuniting the wounded and weary SEAL with his jubilant comrades."

Note that reply from Shinah. Unlike many of the Arab/Islamic utterances we've become used to hearing, this was not an idle boast. The Pashtun code of hospitality extends to everyone. Doesn't matter if you're an American commando or Osama Bin Laden himself - they're honour bound to give sanctuary to strangers, and to conceal or defend any guest to the death. To forfeit that obligation is a death sentence of its own if word gets out, and to attack a village harbouring a guest is likely to ignite a blood-feud.

This is, of course, one of the dynamics that complicates the search for Bin Laden and other senior Taliban/al-Qaeda figures, and explains why many are caught in Pakistani cities instead of Afghan hills.

Still, there are consequences to all decisions, and one's enemies may decide to hold a grudge:

"It is a testament to the persistent insecurity in Afghanistan that Gulab now fears that his act of compassion may mean his death warrant. After returning the SEAL, he went back to grab his family and flee before the Taliban would come round seeking revenge."

Ah, al-Qaeda's infamous "hearts and minds strategy" again. Feuds of this sort are hardly uncommon in Afghanistan, though it is considered poor form to persecute a Pashtun for honouring the code. And if the al-Qaedists do succeed in killing Gulab while he's out tending his sheep, those close to him will be honor-bound to seek revenge of their own. Reading this stuff, you begin to understand where that Draco guy was coming from, back in the day....

Back to Gulab, who is a human being and not a trend or an abstraction. Several years ago, the USA enacted a law that individuals rendering extraordinary assistance in the War on Terror can bypass normal immigration procedures, get Green Cards as permanent residents, and move to the USA with their families. The Iraqi lawyer who helped find and rescue Jessica Lynch fell under that provision, for instance.

Gulab's story isn't heroic in the same mold (good discussion for the comments section: why not?), but he has taken a significant risk on behalf of an American under attack by al-Qaeda and its allies. If he feels the need to flee his home, he and his family deserve to be relocated to America.

I'd be immensely disappointed in the SEALs and SOCOM if they aren't already working on this.

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There have been 30 major mass casualty attacks directed against the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and North Osetia. 14 of the 30 attacks were conducted prior to the invasion of Iraq, making claims of the occupation of Iraq as a casus belli for al Qaeda’s terrorism to be disingenuous at best. 4,895 people have been killed in these attacks, and 12,345 plus have been wounded. The majority of the countries attacked are Muslim countries. And although not stated, the vast majority of the victims of al Qaeda's violence are Muslims.

The ideologues, leaders and foot soldiers of al Qaeda have no reservations about slaughtering the innocent. The majority of their attacks have been directed against civilian infrastructure such as embassies, consulates, shipping, transportation, hotels, resorts, nightclubs, bars, synagogues, churches, temples, mosques, markets, housing complexes, office buildings and schools. Each of al Qaeda's targets were purposefully selected and carefully timed to inflict mass casualties as well as to provide the maximum media exposure. The radical Islamists embrace Muslim casualties, as many are considered infidel for embracing Western culture and rejecting the “pure” Islam espoused by al Qaeda. This is an enemy that deserves no quarter.

On a personal note: Although I am in constant contact with the news of al Qaeda's operations and was aware of each attack presented, assembling the information, gathering the photographs and viewing the final cut still left an indelible impression on me. It is difficult to wade into the pools, lakes, seas and oceans of blood al Qaeda has created and not be affected.

I want to thank Marvin Hutchens for his tireless work in assembling this presentation. When we first discussed the idea on Friday, we immediately agreed on the vision for this presentation and how we wanted to present it. It is a rare opportunity when two people who have never met or spoke over the phone can seamlessly and effortlessly piece together ideas, images and data to create a presentation on an emotional topic such as this. It has been a pleasure to work with Marvin and I look forward to doing so in the future.

Marvin has provided his analysis of the data, impressions on the creation of the presentation and an explanation of the accompanying musical score over at The Fourth Rail, and further thoughts here.

Update:

MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast discussed the presentation and played a clip. The Political Teen has the video.

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The L.A. Times had an excellent article about Srebrenica today, as did the New York Times, who focused in part on the trauma the events presented to the Dutch soldiers guarding the Muslim enclave.

Mandated to defend the U.N.-declared ''safe haven,'' the Dutch battalion stood by as the carnage unfolded, and has been accused by some of sharing responsibility for the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.

Nearly 8,000 people died after Bosnian Serbs overran the enclave 10 years ago Monday. While the Dutch watched, the Serbs separated Muslim men and boys from their families, loaded them into trucks and took them away for execution. The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague has ruled it was genocide.

Official inquiries have cleared the 370 troops of blame. Overwhelmed, undermanned, under-armed and with orders to shoot only in self defense, they were helpless to stop the onslaught, independent investigators have concluded.

The false appearance of strength and the structures of negotiation are not a useful defense against evil.

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My Eccentric Friend, Part 1: Dreams of the Arabs

As usual, my eccentric friend began to put forth his questions tonight with his volcanic vehemence. He said:

"The media in our region has managed to steer public opinion towards the conviction that there is absolutely nothing good about the US; that everything they do is wrong; and that they are intent upon perpetrating crimes against the Arabs.

This same media says nothing about the corruption of the Palestinian leadership; and could find nothing to say about Sadat except that he was a 'traitor'; nor has it ever been mentioned once during the past forty years that the Arabs' current predicament with Israel is the result of Gamal Abdel Nasser's misguided actions in May and June of 1967. This media has never once given voice to the opinion of those cultured Palestinians who see that the suicide attacks against Israel have considerably weakened the Palestinian cause, nor does it ever link between Israel's excessive use of force and these attacks. This media has never dared to criticize its own leadership or mention the corruption ingrained in many of its public figures.

How, then, can any sane person in the civilized world respect the leanings of a public opinion that is so blatantly shaped by this type of media, in countries, moreover, where the illiteracy rate is almost fifty percent?"

My eccentric friend rushed on enthusiastically:

"Don't you agree that the claim made by some Arabs that they are Semites and therefore cannot possibly be labeled as anti-Semitic is one of the most preposterous blunders ever? Anyone with even a bare minimum of knowledge is aware of the fact that the term "anti-Semitism" is synonymous with "anti-Jewish" - i.e. being against the Jews simply because they are Jewish – ever since the atrocious Dreyfuss case in France at the end of the nineteenth century. Yet some of these people speak and write in a manner that confirms their hostility towards the Jews (simply because they are Jews), and not in their capacity as Israelis who have adopted policies that the writer finds unacceptable. Then these same people go on to argue that they cannot be accused of anti-Semitism because they themselves, as Arabs, are Semitic in origin.

It baffles me how a cartoonist could actually bring himself to portray an Arab asking Hitler: "Why didn't you finish your task?!" and then make the outrageous claim that he is not anti-Semitic?!

And how a religious man could stand on a pulpit in order to curse the Jews, stating that treachery and betrayal are in their very nature, and then be defended on the grounds that he is an Arab, therefore a Semite, and accordingly cannot be described as anti-Semitic?! It is common for religious men to denounce Jews from their pulpits during Friday prayers, pouring curses upon them, whereas they could simply condemn the killing of innocent civilians in general, no matter by whom."

He rushed on enthusiastically:

"As you know, the Arabs never stop accusing the West in general and the US in particular of having double standards and of showing no respect for world opinion; yet in the past few weeks, the world looked on in amazement and disbelief as the Arabs denounced international legitimacy when it ruled against their wishes with regard to the events in Sudan; and when the whole world condemned the Syrian intervention in Lebanon, the Arabs raised a hue and cry and launched a vicious attack (headed by the Secretary-General of the Arab League) against the international community. The Arabs were guilty of a far graver and infinitely more disastrous incidence of this type of attitude when they refused to accept international rulings regarding the division of Palestine into two separate states in 1947, one for the Arabs and the other for the Jews.

Ironically, these same Arabs would literally be dancing for joy if they were to be given the same opportunity the United Nations made them in 1947 and which they then refused, leading to the first disastrous confrontation with Israel in 1949 which culminated in Israel's acquiring more land than had originally been allotted to it by the UN decree of 1947. According to former president Clinton's book, published last June, the Arabs would be beside themselves with joy if, in a few years' time, the UN were to make them the very same offer that Yasser Arafat turned down in Camp David four years ago. A striking example of the 'foresight' and perspicacity of some of our current Arab leaders...!"

I would advise you to buy Dennis Ross's book "The Missing Piece," which provides ample evidence of how Yasser Arafat has wasted a probably never-to-be-repeated opportunity for his beleaguered people.

My eccentric friend then switched from his customary discourse to a serious question, asking me:

"Do you think there is the slightest glimmer of hope in this dismal situation where the only concern of most of our leaders is simply how to remain in power?!"

I answered with a firm: Yes! I really am optimistic that the age of totalitarianism is approaching its end, that civil liberties are on the way to becoming a reality, and that political, economic, educational and media reforms will be implemented ("whether anyone likes it or not", as Arafat is fond of saying!).

I also believe that the moderate form of Islam will prevail; an Islam that believes implicitly in coexistence with others and does not claim that any one sect is superior to another, an Islam that defines jihad or the holy war as a legitimate defense of self rather than as spreading the word through the sword; an Islam that wholeheartedly supports the march of human civilization in democracy, civil liberties and social sciences.

It is my firm belief that this, the true form of Islam, will eventually win through, and that the Islam of caves and hideouts; of the brutal killing of innocent civilians; of explosive belts and car bombs, will soon be relegated to the Museum of Evil.

On a smaller scale, there is much that is heartening: for although Lebanon, rather than teaching its neighbors democracy and a respect for the constitution, seems instead to have learned the opposite from them (as witnessed by the events of a few days ago) and indeed to have drawn closer to them, there is yet more than a glimmer of light in the Lebanese situation. I cannot adequately express the extent of my admiration for the four Lebanese ministers who handed in their resignations in protest against the 'modifications' that took place in the constitution to serve the interests of the country's leader rather than its people. Theirs is a noble and honorable stance, and although three of them belong to a group headed by a man I respect but whose views I mostly disagree with – Walid Jumbulat – I maintain that he and the three men in question deserve the unstinting respect and admiration of us all.

I cannot hide my disappointment at the Arab reaction to this momentous event; a reaction that only goes to confirm yet again that democracy is certainly not a priority with the majority of Arab pol.

The Arabs who cry out in protest against the US presence in Iraq did not utter a murmur when one of the most villainous criminals modern history has ever known took control of the country from 1968 until his ignominious capture (he was found hiding in a hole in the ground like a cornered rat) in 2003. These same Arabs who remained unmoved by the atrocities committed by the Arab Sudanese tribes against the Sudanese tribes of African origin (both of whom are Muslims), and minimized the extent of the crimes perpetrated against them, raised a hue and cry over the UN intervention in Sudanese affairs, headed by the Secretary-General of the Arab League.

As if the sovereignty of the Sudan were more important than the lives of the thousands of Sudanese who were massacred and left homeless! What kind of murky reasoning is this?

Next - My Eccentric Friend, Part 2: A Word in the Palestinian Ear

This essay was translated into numerous languages. For instance, you may read the French version, or you can read it in Hebrew, in Arabic and in Russian. For more of Tarek Heggy's writtings in English, please visit www.t-heggy-site-contents.org and for Tarek Heggy's writings in French please visit www.metransparent.com/authors/french/tarek_heggy.htm.

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“I was honored to participate in the Afghani jihad against the Russians and the communists until we exterminated their forces and lowered their flanks and made an example out of them—as we will also do with America, with the help of Allah… I was honored to become acquainted with Shaykh Abdullah Azzam, and I worked with him during the days of the Afghani jihad in 1987. Then in 1988, I was honored by coming to know Shaykh Usama [Bin Laden]… I was honored to become a member of Al-Qaida, and I worked with the group until 1992. During that time, I trained its first elite fighters and I was an instructor at its camps and other Arab-Afghan camps in various military and organizational methodologies, especially given my own high-degree of specialized training in explosives production, special operations, and guerilla warfare that I received in Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. All praise be to Allah for his blessing.”

Note al-Suri's training in Iraq, prior to 1992.

Mr. Kohlmann documents al-Suri's extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Taliban, and al Qaeda. al-Suri is quoted extensively in this profile, his own words are proof of his terrorist pedigree. As they say, read the whole thing.

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SOCIETY:

• Partial results of a new study of public opinion in Afghanistan, "Voices of a New Afghanistan," compiled the Washington non-partisan think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, paint a picture of a country where people no longer think that terrorism is a threat, don't consider drugs a high priority, and are impatient about corruption, crime, and international assistance being slow to materialize. Overall, though, the Afghans are optimistic about their future and offer "resounding support" for the Karzai government. The full report should be available in mid-July.
  


• A new voter registration drive is off to a good start for the October election:
  

  Voter registration for September elections in Afghanistan has been overwhelming despite security worries including an attack on a registration site at the weekend, organisers say.

  No one was hurt in the attack in the southeastern province of Paktika on Saturday, but police battled gunmen for hours, delaying the site's opening, Bronwyn Curran, a spokeswoman for the Afghan-UN election body, said on Monday.

  She said security and other problems, such as sandstorms and flooding, had prevented registration at 59 of 1052 stations nationwide, but 73,000 people had registered in the first two days of the month-long process that began on Saturday.

  More than 10.6 million people registered for October's presidential polls won by Western-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai.

  Parliamentary elections are set for 18 September and organisers aim to register up to two million people who were either too young for the October vote, did not previously register, lost their registration cards, or have moved.

• Meanwhile, the candidates' list is being finalized:
  

  On June 4, the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) issued the Preliminary Candidate List, and from June 4 to June 9 individuals had the opportunity to file a challenge against any prospective candidate with the Electoral Complaints Commission.

  The ECC received over 1138 challenges against 556 candidates.

  Citizens from across Afghanistan exercised their right to participate in this process and the broad public response was an encouraging sign of the Afghan people’s desire to hold a fair election.

  After reviewing the challenges, the ECC has advised the JEMB of 233 candidates who must be provisionally disqualified from standing for office due to their failure to meet the requirements for candidacy.

• The Coalition forces will be providing increased security for the election: the Netherlands are sending a marine battalion, Spain 400 soldiers, France 300 troops and some airplanes, Romania is sending 400 extra troops, and Austria additional 100. Overall, 2000 more NATO peacekeepers will be deployed throughout the country at the election time.
  


• Under an agreement signed with the UN Development Programme, the European Union has committed itself to contributing another 11.5 million euros ($13.7 million) towards the parliamentary election, bringing its total contribution so far to that purpose to 34 million euros ($40 million). Finland will be donating 2 million euros ($2.4 million) for that purpose, and Sweden is sending election observers.
  


• In order to provide more information about the election to the voters, the Afghan government has launched this new initiative:
  

  Afghan voters with questions on the 2005 Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council elections may now call a toll-free phone number from anywhere in Afghanistan, and have their questions answered personally.

  By dialling 1 8 0 from any mobile or landline phone, callers will be connected to a Voter Information Centre staffed by operators ready to answer their questions in Dari, Pashto or English from 7am to 7pm every Saturday to Thursday. The number will not be available if called after hours.

  The Voter Information Centre was launched this week and has already handled more than 150 public telephone enquiries.

  As JEMBS staff, Voter Information Centre operators have been trained to answer any question relating to any aspect of the 2005 electoral process.

• USAID is also supporting the growth public awareness of the poll:
  

  To prepare Afghans for the September parliamentary elections, USAID launched four new civic education programs. Two of the projects aim to better familiarize women on the election process: the funding of election content in eight consecutive editions of the popular women’s magazine “Mursal” and the broadcasting of radio shows on elections and the democratic process produced by an Afghan women’s mobile radio station. USAID is also funding the development and broadcast of nine radio quiz shows, testing listeners on the elections, the Constitution and Afghan history. Also, 12 radio dramas were produced and broadcast on 27 radio stations. Lastly, a theatre campaign is working to ensure that Afghan citizens receive the information they need to complete registration and participate fully in the elections process. Theatre inaugurations were recently held in Kabul and Herat. Approximately 150 people attended the highly successful show in Herat, including senior members from the provincial government and Kabul University. The Kabul inauguration was attended by 50 people, including members of the press. Inaugurations are scheduled this week in Kandahar, Mazar, Jalalabad and Khost.

• USAID is also providing media training for Afghan political parties: "The second advanced political party media training concluded on June 8, with an additional six parties receiving certificates. Program highlights included the second of four press conferences, in which party representatives organize and participate in weekly discussions of a different issue. Also, as part of the training, participants visit Internews and Pajhwok news agencies to gain experience in writing, editing, and producing various media messages. This provides a much-needed understanding of the best ways to present brief and clear messages to the media. The third of four groups commenced training on June 13."
  


• There's also assistance from France: "In the build-up to the September polls, a five-week technical training course for 120 newly-appointed administrative officers of the Parliament Secretariat began here on Saturday [11 June]. About 120 employees, recruited from amongst 780 applicants, started undergoing the training being imparted by French experts and interim secretariat officers at Istiqlal High School." Also, 60 staffers of the Afghan Statistics Center of the Ministry of Economics will be trained by their Iranian counterparts.
  


• The Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development is helping to nurture Afghan civil society through its work at creating Community Development Councils throughout the country. Other international agencies, meanwhile, are assisting the development of Afghan judicial system. Building on the recently enacted reformist Juvenile Code, "a new partnership between the Afghan Ministry of Justice, UNICEF and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will help to strengthen the juvenile justice sector in Afghanistan.
  

  The partnership, which will be officially launched on Saturday 18 June, will see UNICEF and UNODC providing a range of training and technical support to up to 250 legal professionals, juvenile judges, juvenile prosecutors, social workers and juvenile police on issues including the new Afghan Juvenile Code, children's rights and international legal standards. UNICEF and UNODC are currently working in close cooperation also to support the Ministry of Justice, together with UNDP, for the Priority Reform and Restructure (PRR) initiative with the Juvenile Justice Department.

• Afghan prisons are also getting a new legal framework:
  

  A newly-ratified law is expected to bring significant changes to Afghanistan's crumbling prisons and ensure the basic rights of thousands of inmates in the country's jails, law experts said in the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday.

  The 54-article law has been designed to bring the nation's prisons and detention centres up to minimum international standards.

  "The new law says the prison system has to achieve the goal of rehabilitation of prisoners and to deliver a person back in to society as a law abiding individual," Giuseppe di Gennaro, a senior legal reform advisor of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) said.

  The law was ratified on 31 May after two years of work by national and international experts. It was drafted by the government of Afghanistan, with support from the UNODC and the government of Italy, which is the lead nation working on the reform of the Afghan justice system.

• And USAID continues to work on renovating Afghan legal infrastructure:
  

  On June 20, a ceremony was held to celebrate USAID’s completion of the rehabilitation of Jabal us-Saraj Tower in Parwan province. The tower serves as part of the district’s courthouse, and has significant historical value not only to the people of Jabul us-Saraj, but to all of Afghanistan. The tower was used as a headquarters during the anti-Soviet struggle by the Northern Alliance. To date in FY05, USAID has constructed/rehabilitated 20 judicial facilities. An additional 9 facilities are on target to be completed by the end of July.

• In women's affairs, President Karzai has creation of a new Inter-Ministerial Task Force to eliminate violence against women. "The Task Force's members... would include high ranking representatives from Supreme Court, Attorney General's office, Women Affairs Ministry, Justice Ministry, Interior Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Health and Human Rights Commission."
  


• On the non-government level, CARE USA is helping to provide education for girls and women who missed out in the past:
  

  Meet Farzana. She’s the principal of Sha Shaheed School, a school for girls who missed years of their education during the five years of the Taliban’s rule. The school is one of nine supported by CARE’s Out of School Girls Project that provides fast-track education for girls by teaching two years in one.

  During the Taliban years, Farzana and her family fled to Pakistan, and she was able to work. However, after September 11th, her family moved back to Kabul and Farzana was able to keep working. She’s 28 years old and single, which is unusual for a woman her age in Afghanistan, and lives with her father. While her brothers and sisters are all married, she tells us that her father is open minded and encourages her to pursue her career.

  The Sha Shaheed School teaches 360 girls who come in six days a week, either for the morning or afternoon, for their classes. Most of the girls are between 10-14 years old and were in school before Taliban, but had to stop going to school for five years when the Taliban didn’t allow girls to be educated.

  These girls are now much older that the kids in their grade and CARE aims to provide a fast-track education so they can rejoin the school system at the appropriate age.

• Participants in other similar programs are already starting to graduate: "After a lapse of more than a decade, the first batch of 23 girls Tuesday completed their high school education in the southern Kandahar province, a former stronghold of Taliban who had banned female literacy in Afghanistan. Kandahar Education Department chief Hayatullah Rafiqi told Pajhwok Afghan News after the passage of 11 long years, the girls graduated from the Zarghona Ana High School in Kandahar City."
  


• Read also this story of an Afghan woman who combines business with social statement:
  

  Sara Rahmani never bought her own burqa during the Taliban regime, which forced women to wear the all-encompassing garment.

  But now the Taliban regime is gone, and Rahmani is burqa-happy. She buys burqas by the dozen. Rahmani, a clothing designer who has started her own company, then has her tailors cut up and resew the burqas. The result: the burqa shirt.

  "I thought to myself, the Taliban period is finished," Rahmani said. "What should we do with all these burqas?"

  Rahmani and her clothing line say much about the possibilities in the new Afghanistan--in Kabul, at least. She is a woman running her own company, something impossible only a few years ago and still unusual enough that she was picked to meet First Lady Laura Bush when she visited in March. Rahmani also was featured in Afghan Women and Business magazine. She is 34 and still single--a rarity in Afghanistan.

  Rahmani, who favors a classic, conservative look of a gauzy head scarf, a gray pantsuit and black heels, is also challenging convention. She is taking an item like the burqa--still worn by women in most of the countryside and the city--and changing it.

• Rahmani employs 11 people, including 10 widows and orphans, and while making it in business is tough, she's actively pursuing opportunities overseas.
  


• Global refugee numbers have reached the lowest levels since 1980. The last four years have seen continuing consecutive falls in numbers, with another 4% fall in 2004. Overall in that period, some 5 million refugees were able to find their way home, with 3.5 million of them going back home to Afghanistan. The internally displaced are also now slowly making their way home:
  

  For three years, Zhare Dasht camp, located on a sun-baked plain in southern Afghanistan, has sheltered nearly 500,000 internally displaced people. Many have now decided it is time to return home.

  The camp was built by the UN refugee agency, with the support of donors and partner agencies, in early 2002 to house Afghans who had been forced to leave their homes elsewhere in the country. Many were Pashtuns from the north who feared persecution following the defeat of the unpopular – and largely Pashtun – Taliban.

  Zhare Dasht also became home to thousands of farmers left destitute by years of drought; a drought which also left many of Afghanistan's nomadic Kuchis unable to continue their traditional way of life.

  Within the camp, UNHCR, with the Afghan government, provides residents with access to water, sanitation, school and medical facilities.

  But the pull of home is still strong. Already, more families have returned home this summer than in all of 2004.

• And the local authorities are trying to help some of the returnees:
  

  The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation Affairs started distribution of plots to returning refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kabul and Parwan provinces.

  Hafeez Nadeem, an official at the ministry, told Pajhwok Afghan News 1,500 plots would be distributed among refugees and IDPs in Kabul's Kalakan district and 10,000 in Bagram district of the Parwan province.

  Engineer Sami, an advisor to the ministry, said 50,000 plots of lands would go to refugees and IDPs in 19 provinces of the country by the end of March next as part of a programme for settlement of the down-and-out families.

• USAID continues to provide major assistance to the Afghan health system: "In FY2005, USAID will support the construction of 277 health facilities. To date, 32 clinics have been completed and 204 are under construction." And in the combined United Nations and NGO effort:
  

  A project, co-sponsored by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), got under way in Afghanistan today with the arrival in Kabul of donated production machinery for the country's first-ever generic medicine factory, which will eventually produce 300 million to 400 million tablets of safe, urgently needed analgesics and antibiotics for local use.

  The machinery will equip a newly-constructed factory named Baz International Pharmaceutical Company Limited. The locally produced generic medicines will significantly improve the availability of safe, effective and affordable medication in the country, UNDP said.

  The plant will be fully Afghan-owned and will be managed by Dr. Karim Baz, an experienced local doctor. Approximately 40 local employees will be taught relevant operating skills and production technology.

• Afghanistan is winning another war against disease:
  

  Gada Mohammad is a resolute foot soldier in Afghanistan's battle against polio, tramping up remote mountains to search out children and give them their pink vaccine drops.

  He might be about to win the war.

  Afghanistan looks to be on the verge of eradicating polio, just as a flare-up in another remote corner of the world has led to the crippling children's disease leaping between continents...

  Afghanistan has been doing its bit. It had 27 polio cases in 2000, four last year and only one so far this year.

• And a new campiagn aims to cover 100 per cent of the targetted population by 2009: "The Public Health Ministry said on Monday it would vaccinate babies and mothers as part of a national campaign to control mortality rate among them. Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi said they would immunize kids under nine months and mothers (15-45) against whooping cough, measles, tetanus (DPT) throughout the country."
  


• Pakistani authorities have delivered another 10 of the promised 45 fully-equipped ambulances, bringing the number so far to 33. Spain, meanwhile, will "equip 24 health centers in the southern Badghis province with drugs, medical equipment and other necessities" and upgrade the Badghis hospital from 30 to 70 beds.
  


• USAID is also active supporting the growth of Afghan education system:
  

  As the number of children attending school increases, USAID is responding by building or rehabilitating additional schools. In FY2005, USAID has constructed 136 new schools, with an additional 150 schools under construction. In addition to facility construction, USAID supports the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education and the Academic Council on Education to improve policy formulation, strategic planning and program development, and monitoring and evaluation. In addition, USAID has trained over 7,500 teachers in formal classroom settings, and 65,000 teachers in remote areas through the Radio Teacher Training Program.

• USAID will soon be busy with a major construction project:
  

  The United States of America will reconstruct Ghazi High school with international standards. The USA will invest $6 million through USAID for reconstruction and furnishing of the school.

  Dr Zalmai Khalilzad the US ambassador in Afghanistan told Bakhtar News Agency that, the engineering design of this school is drawn by Afghan engineers and the new school will have 4 blocks for classes and administration offices, football, volleyball and basket ball grounds, gymnasium, car parking, an entertainment park, auditorium and laboratories.

  The construction work of this school will start at the end of this year and will be finished in two years.

  He added that the new school will have 78 classrooms and can accommodate 6200 students at a time.

• Two new schools, each able to take in 1,500 pupils, have opened in Bagram district and Sinjit Dara of the central Parwan province. The schools were a joint project of the local Provincial Reconstruction Team and UNESCO.
  


• In higher education news, "the American University of Afghanistan's new female dormitory, which has been established with assistance of the Afghan Wireless Communication System, AWCC, was opened [recently]... The foundation of the three-storey building of new American University of Afghanistan was laid in the southwest of Kabul earlier this year. The initial academic programmes will include majors in information technology, business management and public administration."
  


• Denmark has also been active in the area of education: "The Danish support to the Ministry of Education has already resulted in a new curriculum for 22 courses, better training of teachers, publication of 3.6 million schoolbooks and the construction of new schools." Overall, The Danish contribution is worth DKK 670 million ($108 million) and will extend at least until 2009. Meanwhile, the Afghan-Turkish School in Kabul has organised the first science fair in country's recent history.
  


• University of Massachusetts is helping with education of Afghan women:
  

  When word spread in one Afghanistan village that literacy courses were available for women, the response was immediate. The small classroom quickly filled and those left outside crowded around windows to peer in.

  "It was hard to keep the women out," said Frank McNerney, a doctoral candidate at the UMass Center for International Education.

  The windows remained open because no woman would be shut out, McNerney recalled.

  In a country where women crave education after decades of repression at the hands of the Taliban and others, a teacher is a like a beacon, a light through a window.

  "People are really hopeful right now. They see education as their ticket to a better life," McNerney said.

  Afghanistan is the latest outreach project for the UMass center, said David Evans, the center's director for more than 30 years. It creates and implements educational systems in developing countries. The programs range from graduate policy planning in Malawi to the very basic - teaching reading to the illiterate in rural Afghanistan.

  The center recently won a $4.3 million subcontract to work with the Boston-based Management Sciences for Health to help rural women understand community health issues and ultimately train others. Evans said the UMass center was brought on board when the Boston agency realized it couldn't recruit enough women who had the basic education level necessary to even reach the training courses.

• Speaking of educating Afghan girls read this inspirational story of one family which is trying to make a difference in remote area of the country:
  

  A jumble of small plastic sandals covers the landing in front of the narrow mud-walled room. The boisterous sound of schoolchildren fills the space as they shout out the letters their teacher points to on the blackboard.

  Inside this nondescript house at the foot of the Hindu Kush Mountains in central Afghanistan, an ordinary event is taking place in extraordinary circumstances. In an area where the nearest school is several kilometres away and is only open to boys, girls between the ages of six and 18 are learning to read and write in the home of a family who, until last year, were refugees in Iran.

  Mohammed Sadiq and his wife fled their native Parwan province following the invasion of the Soviet army. For 19 years they lived in neighbouring Iran, raising four daughters and two sons and waiting for a time when they could return to Afghanistan. Last year after contacting UNHCR, they decided to make the journey.

  "We left because of war. We returned because of peace," says 18-year-old Parween. A confident and well-spoken young woman, she, like all of Mohammed's children, spent her entire life in Iran before returning to the isolated hilltop village of Khan Baihi.

  "I am an educated man," says Mohammed. "And it was my strong desire to educate my children." Though he struggled at times to meet the cost of schooling, Mohammed ensured his daughters always attended classes. When he returned to his home, he found that the education he had worked so hard to provide for his children was denied the girls of the village. He decided to provide an alternative.

  "A few months after we returned, I went to the mosque when I knew all the men would be there praying. I said to them, 'My daughters are educated and they can also provide your children with an education.' We created a classroom in our house and that was how it began."

• USAID continues to support the development of the Afghan media:
  

  Sayara, a USAID-supported media NGO held its second national university journalism student convention in late May. Almost 100 students from various universities participated in the 3-day event. During the convention, the students considered such issues as Afghans taking control of Afghanistan’s future, the role of the media in Afghan democracy, and goals for Afghanistan to achieve by 2005.

  Pajhwok, a USAID-supported national news agency, recently secured a two year subscription contract from the Combined Forces Command. This is in addition to other newly signed contracts with Azadi newspaper, World Bank, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Canadian Embassy. To date, the news agency has received $5300, has unpaid contracts worth $36,803, and has signed agreements for a monthly income of $8983.

  In addition, in late May the Afghan National Television switched over to a new digital system. The conversion from analog to a digital system took two years and was finalized with financial assistance of $7.4 million from the Government of Japan. Additionally, according to the state-owned newspaper Anis, the Italian government just inaugurated an Internet centre for Radio and Television worth US $1.4 million.

• In the latest development, Radio Voice of Paktika, the first independent radio station in the Paktika province has been officially opened. "Established by Internews Network with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development's Office of Transition Initiatives, the station began broadcasting April 4. Radio Voice of Paktika has a potential audience of almost 200,000 with a 45 meter mast, one of the tallest of any FM station in Afghanistan. The station broadcasts nine hours a day with both in-house programming and material from the daily news and entertainment program." You can also read this report about how "Music soothes extremism along troubled Afghan border."
  


• Iranian government is helping the development of local culture. Among the projects: establishing an Afghan-Iranian research center in Kabul, providing books for university libraries in Kabul, Balkh, Bamian, Herat, and Jalalabad, and founding a printing house at the Kabul university.
  


• Meanwhile, two Afghan artists have recently received international recognition:
  

  Two artists from Afghanistan were chosen by a panel of five Taiwan judges from among the contestants in the Venice Bienniale International Art Exhibition as winners of the first Taiwan Award over the weekend.

  Linda Abdul and Rahim Walizada were each awarded a trophy made out of a brick produced in Taiwan 200 years ago and a cash prize of US$20,000 by Tchen Yu-chiou, secretary-general of Taiwan's National Cultural Association.

  Abdul, who is an Afghan refugee, had to choke back tears when she accepted the prize from Tchen.

  She told the 50-odd audience at the award ceremony that she loves her country's culture, which was seriously damaged during the civil war, and would like to draw the world's attention through her art to the disaster facing the Afghan people and their culture.

RECONSTRUCTION:

• Good news for the financial stability and governance of the country: "The Ministry of Finance met a significant milestone by exceeding the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) total domestic revenue generation target of $256 million for Afghan FY1383 (March 21, 2004 – March 20, 2005). As of May 16, approximately $260.6 million has been collected for FY1383 and this figure could increase upon final reconciliation at the end of May. Total domestic revenue increased 20% from FY 1382. Customs revenue figures were also impressive – $150.3 million was collected for FY1383, an increase of 38.9% from FY 1382. Customs revenue served as 58% of the total domestic revenue collected, helping to sustain the funding of Government of Afghanistan (GOA) programs and services. USAID is helping the GAO achieve this goal by strengthening human capital at a ministerial level, streamlining the GOA’s payment systems and establishing a modern tax system by implementing appropriate laws and regulations."
  


• In foreign assistance to Afghanistan, Denmark is contributing another 90 million euros ($110 million) for projects in the areas of "human rights, reconstruction of the public sector, humanitarian work and education."
  


• And the British government has earmarked another 35 million pounds ($61 million) to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) in 2005-06. "The ARTF is a multi-donor trust fund set up by the World Bank in 2002 to coordinate donor funding to the Government of Afghanistan's recurrent costs and selected reconstruction activities. It supports Afghanistan's budget and applies strict fiduciary monitoring to these expenditures."
  


• Japan also continues to contribute: "The Japanese embassy in Afghanistan has signed contracts with 14 local and international non-governmental organisations, NGOs, to carry out 18 projects worth a total of 44 million US dollars. The projects granted by the Japanese government include construction of schools, roads and bridges, digging of wells and establishment of handicraft education centres. They will be carried out in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Khost provinces." As part of that assistance:
  

  The government of Japan has agreed to provide $1,870,449 in grant for launching different welfare projects in three provinces. The projects included reconstruction, health and vocational training, which will be started in Kabul, Kandahar and Faryab provinces... [and] establishment of educational and cultural centres and imparting training in carpet weaving and health.

• There is also financial assistance from the World Bank: "World Bank (WB) has agreed to release a grant of $265 million for uplift projects in Afghanistan during the current year... Aziz Shams, press officer for the Finance Ministry, said highways construction, health and education sectors and capacity-building were the main areas where the governmental intended to utilise the amount."
  


• One of the first trade fairs have taken place in the capital:
  

  Food items, construction material and industrial and technical products from 19 countries would go on display at an exhibition here from today, officials said Monday.

  Bacu Company, a member of the six-firm Gohar Group, will organise the international trade event, which will conclude on June 13. The group is currently operating in Dubai and the United Kingdom.

  Siywash Abbasi, an official of the Gohar Group in Tehran, told Pajhwok Afghan News 75 companies would display their products including cake and cookies, motorcycles, computers, construction cables, etc.

  The US, the UK, Australia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan and other southern countries will be taking part in the trade fair.

• American business organization is helping Afghan women to enter into the world of business:
  

  It's dubbed the "Style Road Trip." In late May, some two dozen Afghani businesswomen arrived in New York to participate in an intensive three-week program designed to promote and develop entrepreneurship among Afghanistan's women. For most of them, the program, sponsored by the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace), was their first trip outside their war-torn nation. The participants are mostly engaged in apparel, accessories, and home décor manufacturing businesses. The program includes visits to top American designers such as Eileen Fisher and celebrity favorite Behnaz Sarafpour, seminars at the Fashion Institute of Technology and side trips to the beach for a Memorial Day barbecue and sightseeing.

• This is a story of one of the women on the trip:
  

  After living as a refugee in Pakistan for 13 years, Laila returned to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in 2003... "I heard that the Karzai government would bring peace and the Taliban had left," she says.

  Having spent those refugee years working variously as a teacher, carpet designer, in marketing and sales, and as an administrator for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and later Medecins Sans Frontieres on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Laila, 36, decided that she wanted start her own jewelry business.

  Although she had put together $4,000 from her savings and pension from UNICEF, she still faced a series of economic and social hurdles. For one, some of her in-laws insisted that a woman should stay at home. But she persevered, with the support of her husband, taking English and computer classes. Eventually she opened a small jewelry store and importing business. "I saw that there was a good market in Kabul," she says.

• You can also read the interview with Bpeace's Toni Maloney as well as learn more from BPeace itself about their work in Afghanistan. There is also a nice photo essay about one visit on the trip. And here's another story about the work of the Business Council for Peace:
  

  Conflict in the Middle East didn't keep Rangina Hamidi from returning to her Afghanistan homeland.

  She was born in Kandahar, but her family moved to Virginia after Hamidi was threatened by war-related forces for going to school in Pakistan.

  After Hamidi graduated from the University of Virginia five years ago, she moved back to Kandahar, where the Taliban had been ousted by U.S. military action.

  There, she founded an embroidery business that employs about 300 women who work at home.

  Now, a Roanoke business and an international peace organization are helping Hamidi build economic vitality for her employees in Kandahar.

• Speaking of women in business, "a federation of the Afghan businesswomen will be established in a month with a start-up fund from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)...
  

  Chairman of Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce Hamid Qaderi said the USAID had promised to donate six million dollars for funding the project. He hoped the creation of the businesswomen federation would boost business concerns belonging to women besides enabling them to play a more active role in the country's reconstruction and economic development.

• Work by USAID to construct three industrial parks in major Afghan cities continues:
  

  In Kabul, major design work, including survey processes and the design of all infrastructure, is completed. Contracts for the related sectors have been awarded. Construction activities are estimated to be 75% complete, with land preparation work, sewage system, interior water system and communication construction work nearly 100% complete.

  In Kandahar, design work is approximately 80% complete. The designs of the land preparation, roads, sidewalks and sewage system are complete, and the design for electricity is underway and expected to be completed soon. Sixty percent of contracts have been awarded to date. Site preparation and securing the area is well underway. A monitoring team visited the project site last week and found that the surface runoff channel and ditch which were started in late March are about 90% complete. Site leveling and preparation are in progress.

  In Mazar-i Sharif, design work is 40% complete and contracts have been awarded for 20% of the work. According to the site monitoring reports, excavation and concrete foundation are completed, and stone masonry work is underway.

• India is helping Afghanistan to receive more electricity:
  

  In a major move to help war- ravaged Afghanistan rebuild its infrastructure, India today agreed to construct a 220 KV double circuit transmission line to start power supply from Uzbekistan to Kabul and a power sub-station in the Afghan capital... The transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul would be implemented within a period of 42 months, he said, adding that the entire expenditure would be in the nature of assistance or grant to Afghanistan.

• A major new link is being developed between Afghanistan and Tajikistan:
  

  Efforts to boost the economies of both Tajikistan and Afghanistan moved one step further on Saturday, when Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and Afghan President Hamid Karzai laid the foundation stone for a US-funded bridge across the Pyanzh River.

  "The Nizhiniy Pyanzh bridge will unlock the economic vitality of the two countries through expanded trade opportunities, advance Tajik-Afghan efforts to combat international terrorism and weapons and drug trafficking, and improve international cooperation in the region," US Ambassador to Tajikistan, Richard Hoagland, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

  Once completed in 2007, more than 1,000 cars and trucks are expected to cross daily to take goods between the two countries.

  "At the moment, only one bridge, between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, links the goods of South Asia to Central Asia," Hoagland explained, noting the economic potential to the region, reminiscent of the Great Silk Road and trade network that connected East Asia with Europe and beyond.

  The bridge is 672 metres long by 11.5 metres wide and built to international seismic standards. It will link the border crossing town of Nizhniy Pyanj, Tajikistan, with the town of Shir Khan in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province.

• To help improve the transport in the country, Afghan authorities took the delivery of 42 buses donated by Pakistan. "Pakistan has already donated 200 trucks, 23 ambulances and 25 passenger vehicles to Afghanistan as a token of friendship. Islamabad had earlier pledged to Kabul a phased delivery of 100 Japanese Hino buses, of which 35 were handed over in the first week of May." Another 23 buses will be donated shortly.
  


• In Kabul, work has started on widening of the road leading to the Kabul airport. Speaking of airports, a local one in the north is getting an upgrade to enable it to receive international flights:
  

  Transport and Aviation Minister Enayatullah Qasemi Saturday [24 June] inaugurated expansion and up-gradation work of the Mazar-i-Sharif airport.

  Speaking on the occasion, Qasemi said the project would be completed during the next three years. He said a new terminal would be erected besides installation of new machinery and equipments and improving the electricity system to bring it at par with international airports.

  The project will cost $20 million. The area of the airport will be expanded to create space for more flights. The airport is so far used for local flights.

• In related developments, "the government of Afghanistan has established a separate airline to serve tourists in Afghanistan. Uqab (Eagle) airline will take tourists to historical places in Afghanistan. Syed Makhdoom Raheen, minister of information, culture and tourism, told reporters on Saturday that the first flight of this newly formed airline took place yesterday, having taken tourists from Kabul to central Bamiyan province. This airline is currently operating with five helicopters."
  


• In communications news, Bamyan gets connected: "The first-ever internet café was opened here... by the National NGOs Coordination (NNC)... The $20,000 project was funded by a US charity based in Memphis, Tennessee State, as well as the Korean International Cooperation Agency working in Afghanistan. Abdul Qayyum, head of the NNC, said people could surf the 12 computer sets connected to the internet as a mode of local and international communications." Meanwhile, "work on laying Internet cable in all districts of Jalalabad will kick off in the next two months. The facility will be provided by the Afghan Cable in all districts of Jalalabad... So far the Afghan Cable has provided connections to over 7,000 houses in Jalalabad."
  


• USAID is helping to make the capital cleaner:
  

  USAID is assisting the municipal government of Kabul to improve the availability and quality of services provided to citizens. In April, the program focused on garbage collection, sanitary drainage system, street maintenance and parks and roadside beautification projects.

  As a result of the garbage collection effort, eleven major dumpsites have been cleaned-up and approximately 250 cubic meters of garbage was disposed. In addition, a door-to-door garbage collection process was enacted in the target district, collecting garbage from 2100 – 2500 houses per week. The project employs ten municipal workers using two dump trucks.

  The sanitary drainage system, or ditch cleaning, also employs ten municipal workers. Through ditch cleaning and the building of a culvert, water is flowing properly and the flooding hazard has been eliminated.

  The renovation of Park Shahr-e Nan is currently underway, with plans being developed for the new design. USAID staff and citizens recently participated in a community service park clean up project.

• World Bank is also assisting with grass-roots reconstruction projects:
  

  The World Bank today approved a US$28 million grant to continue supporting the Afghanistan National Solidarity Program (NSP), which provides resources for reconstruction and development activities at the community level, and for strengthened local governance...

  The NSP provides thousands of rural villages with access to drinking water, small irrigation schemes for agriculture, rural roads, micro hydro-electrical plants and generators for domestic and rural productive activities, training and livelihood projects, schools, sanitation, and clinics among others...

  A critical aspect of this project is the process of decision making surrounding the use of the grants. Building the foundation for solid local governance, consultation, and the legitimacy of local leadership, Community Development Councils are elected through secret ballot. These councils then lead a participatory process in the community to decide how the funds will be used. By May 2005, implementation of the project was ongoing in 8,268 villages, of which 7,348 had elected Community Development Councils, and 9,247 had submitted subproject proposals.

• The program has been a big success so far:
  

  The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) will complete thousands of small reconstruction projects across the country under the National Solidarity Programme.

  Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Mohammad Hanif Atmar told journalists here on Thursday that as many as 8,300 projects costing $100 million and being executed in 33 different provinces would be completed soon.

  He added the National Solidarity Programme largely focused on potable water schemes, irrigation plans, building schools, upgrading the power system and road construction.

• USAID land-titling efforts also continue:
  

  USAID’s Land Titling Team provided legal assistance on property rights issues to residents of District 7 in Kabul. Residents have requested and received legal assistance on issues including property partition among heirs, mortgage and the legal procedure for obtaining formal deed. Using aerial photography, the Titling Team has completed delineation of 254 parcels of land, including footpaths, mosques, schools, and boundaries of 244 residential houses in District 7. The delineation process involved the full participation of community members. In addition to its usefulness for planning purposes, delineating boundaries with the consent and agreement of concerned residents addresses both actual and potential disagreements relating to property boundaries, which is the main cause of dispute in the pilot neighborhoods.

• One program will seek to help both the people and the environment:
  

  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help conserve biodiversity in selected protected areas of Afghanistan while addressing the basic needs of communities in the buffer zones, through a technical assistance (TA) grant package approved for US$1.785 million.

  The TA is structured in two interlinked components: a protected area component and a buffer zone component.

  The protected area component, financed with $975,000 from the Global Environment Facility, will help conserve global significant biodiversity in selected key protected areas. It will develop management plans and conduct biodiversity assessments; promote capacity building in protected area management; provide basic park infrastructure and field equipment for monitoring and surveying; develop ecotourism by emphasizing links between conservation and benefit for local stakeholders; and support key policy and institutional reforms.

  The buffer zone component, financed with $810,000 from the Poverty Reduction Cooperation Fund from the Government of UK, will link development interventions to conservation goals through conservation stewardship agreements.

  It will conduct participatory assessments of target communities to identify their needs and priorities for action and a strategy to reduce poverty while protecting natural resources. It will also provide skills training and promote the empowerment of women by providing alternative livelihoods.

• Agriculture still plays an extremely important role in Afghan economy and society, and USAID is there to assist:
  

  The economic growth of Afghanistan is reliant on the success of the agricultural sector. Recent estimates are that agriculture’s contribution to the country’s GDP is about 51%, employing 85% of the total labor force. With modern technologies and rehabilitated infrastructure, Afghan farmers can meet food sufficiency requirements as well as increased income and foreign exchange earnings.

  USAID is improving Afghanistan’s irrigation infrastructure as a means of increasing agricultural productivity. Projects include dams, spillway and diversion channels, intakes, and distribution systems.

  The Sar-e Haus Dam is the largest dam in Northwest Afghanistan, providing irrigation for an estimated 600,000 people. USAID is reinforcing the left dam abutment, which supports the weight of the dam. The project is 85% complete, with a target completion date of mid-June. In addition, the old center spillway reinforcement construction is scheduled to begin in August 2005.

  Sar-e Haus irrigation infrastructure projects completed to date include the Mohammed Agha and Moghul Khil Intakes, Zana Khan Dam, Sardeh Irrigation System, Shah Rawan Intake Rehabilitation, Sar-e Haus Dam emergency rehabilitation, and the Sar-e Haus Spillway and Diversion Channel.

• Meanwhile, Afghanistan is one of the developing countries where 15 international agricultural research institutes under the Alliance of the Future Harvest Centers of the CGIAR (the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) are helping to rehabilitate local agriculture: "A Consortium of CGIAR centers, led by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), has refurbished Afghanistan's agricultural research stations, established seed testing facilities and trained over 1,000 researchers and farmers. The consortium is helping small farmers grow high-value horticultural and medicinal crops, as well as chickpea, faba bean, potato and peanut."
  


• 
  The US Department of Agriculture is also collaborating with the military Provincial Reconstruction Teams on a series of projects, including distribution of stock, rebuilding farms, construction of veterinary clinics, and many others.
  


• A Pasadena men is helping to diversify Afghan diet and ensure better nutritional and health outcomes:
  

  Steven Kwon believes soybeans can save the people of Afghanistan -- and he's doing something about it.

  A senior nutrition scientist for Nestle USA, Kwon also runs Nutrition Education International, a nonprofit organization he started in 2003 to help reduce mortality rates in Afghanistan.

  One in five Afghan kids die before age 5, Kwon said, and one in six women die during childbirth.

  His solution is offering a better diet through soybeans, which would supplement a traditional diet of naan bread and chai tea. Soybeans are high in protein and soy fiber staves off hunger.

  "Seeing poor people, suffering people, you are compelled to do something from a humanitarian point of view," said Kwon, a Korean man with a soft smile and a gentle demeanor.

  Since starting the relief effort, Kwon has spent his own money and burned up vacation time from his day job on trips to Afghanistan to teach nutrition, consult with agriculture experts and secure the country's endorsements. He's also solicited donations from friends and businesses.

  His efforts have taken root.

  Last year, Nutrition Education International cultivated soybeans on five acres in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan's main northern city. The crop also was planted in a dozen other provinces in April.

  Kwon said that if the harvest is bountiful in October, Afghan leaders would test the plants in all 32 provinces.

  Afghan officials are hopeful. They speculate soybeans could improve health, provide jobs and perhaps supplement the country's opium-producing poppy.

• More on soybeen cultivation in Afghanistan here.
  


• An American non-government group is also assisting:
  

  The US Department of Agriculture would donate 500 metric tonnes of corn oil and 1,500 metric tonnes of soybean oil, for use in Afghanistan, to Mercy Corps, a private voluntary organisation. Mercy Corps will sell the corn and soybean oil in Afghanistan and use the proceeds over a 12-month period to finance rural development activities such as rehabilitating irrigation systems and developing small scale commercial tree crops. Other activities include supporting animal health services, agricultural research and testing agricultural vocational education, as well as strengthening local government capacity through agricultural exchange training.

HUMANITARIAN AID:

• Here are the efforts of two American women trying to help those in Afghanistan:
  

  While women's rights advocates are focusing on the plight of the world's widows today, two local women who lost their husbands on Sept. 11 make it their everyday mission to help Afghan women coping with tragedy...

  Beyond the 11th, a Wellesley nonprofit that raises money for widows affected by terrorism and war in Afghanistan, is also trying to highlight the needs of women who lack money, social supports and legal rights.

  Patti Quigley of Wellesley and Susan Retik of Needham were both pregnant when their husbands, Patrick Quigley and David Retik, were killed aboard two of the planes that crashed on Sept. 11.

  In 2003, they formed Beyond the 11th because they saw that women in Afghanistan also lost a great deal in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and the war that followed.

• American charity is helping the Afghan health system:
  

  CURE International, a Christian nonprofit medical organization based in Harrisburg, was asked by the Afghanistan Ministry of Health to assume management of two hospitals -- one in Kandahar and one in Kabul.

  In Kandahar, more than 10,000 patients are being treated each month. In addition, the CURE Tuberculosis Center treats on average more than 800 patients a month who are suffering from the contagious disease. Unfortunately the number of people with TB is anticipated to rise as some 3 million Afghan refugees return from Pakistan where the disease is rampant...

  American soldiers from Camp Phoenix, near Kabul, allotted funds from a discretionary charity budget to provide a generator for the hospital as well as three water tanks to nourish the patients. Computers were also donated and after they were installed, doctors were immediately punching in data in order to receive vital information to help Afghans in their care.

• Meanwhile, the Afghan Red Crescent Society is planning to make its operations accessible to people from remote areas:
  

  The Afghan Red Crescent Society has planned to move its healthcare centers from urban stations to remote areas in order to reach out to the more needy people.

  Dr Yasmin Yousufzai, heading the ARCS health department, revealed they would shift 10 clinics currently based in Kabul city to its districts in the first phase. She gave no specific timeframe for the shifting.

  Yousufzai pointed out the ARCS ran nearly 50 health centers (clinics) across Afghanistan, most of them based in provincial capital cities.

• There's help for Afghanistan's many orphans:
  

  It is LIFE for Relief and Development's mission to take these children off the streets and into the classroom. In the past, LIFE has supported nearly 1,000-orphaned boys in schools in Laghman and Jalalabad.

  In September, LIFE plans on opening its first school and orphanage for girls and the only school for girls in the Eastern Zone of Afghanistan. The facility has already registered 100-orphaned girls and will support them by providing shelter, clothing and education. This effort will afford the 1st through 5th graders the opportunity to personally combat illiteracy and finally see a bright future.

  In September, LIFE plans on opening its first school and orphanage for girls and the only school for girls in the Eastern Zone of Afghanistan. The facility has already registered 100-orphaned girls and will support them by providing shelter, clothing and education. This effort will afford the 1st through 5th graders the opportunity to personally combat illiteracy and finally see a bright future.

• A British and a French charity combine their efforts to help revive the economic base of one small Afghan community:
  

  Oxfam America and its partner, ACTED, are helping 30 Afghan potters improve the quality of their ceramics, as well as increase their income.

  The village of Kulalin has a rich tradition of pottery making dating back more than 300 years. Like many villages in Istalif, Kulalin found itself on the front line during the fighting between Taliban and Northern Alliance forces in the mid 1990's, forcing the ceramics trade in Kulalin to shut down completely. Houses, schools, and community buildings were destroyed, as well as the workshops and kilns of potters...

  Last year, ACTED, a French organization that helped in rebuilding the village's kilns and workshops, asked Oxfam to support a training program to develop the skills of the potters. Oxfam hired a Pakistani ceramics teacher, Argi Karimi, to evaluate the skills and techniques of Kulalin's potters and make recommendations for improvements. Some of the potters were at first resistant to changing their techniques, especially in consideration of the fact that Argi is both an outsider and a woman. However, they soon recognized and appreciated Argi's expertise.

  Potters in Kulalin traditionally produced large quantities of bowls in each kiln firing, resulting in diminished quality and ultimately a lower price on the local market. The completed pieces, produced in mass quantities, sell for around 6 Afghanis or 12 cents US in the local bazaar or to wholesalers from Kabul.

  Argi is working with 30 potters in the village to improve the quality and marketability of their bowls, from simple improvements such as not stacking their bowls in the kiln during firing to more advanced techniques such as diversifying their designs. In addition to the original bowls, decorated with a simple clear glaze, the artisans are now producing more elaborate pieces-one of many changes that are adding precious value to their craftsmanship.

• A UN body and a charity, meanwhile are trying to improve the economic plight of young people:
  

  The UNICEF and Ashiana will jointly impart vocational skill development training to Afghan children.

  Agreement to this effect was signed between representatives of the UNICEF and Ashiana here on Thursday. Under the accord, 1,000 working children will be educated and trained for developing skills.

  Ashiana is already imparting training to orphan and poor children in carpet-weaving, carpentry, plumbing, computer, mine detection, electronics, drawings and calligraphy. The training will be given at Ashiana centres at Kart-e-Char and Salang Wat.

• Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees is also assisting rural communities:
  

  DACAAR is launching a new microfinance programme under the name DCMS - DACAAR Community Microfinance Services. The objective is to ensure sustainable livelihoods for low-income Afghan households by enabling them to improve their economic status through access to financial services. Both men and women in rural communities in Afghanistan have substantial economic skills which can be productively employed. However, the lack of financial resources limits such opportunities. Over the next five years, activities are planned to cover the six provinces of Ghazni, Laghman, Herat, Paktia, Badghis and Wardak.

  Initially activities will focus on rural villages and surrounding markets, and gradually, operations are intended to expand to semi urban markets. An additional one-year pilot project will be launched in Ghazni city to define a future urban city strategy.

  The six provinces targeted have a total of 7,320 villages with an average of 76 households per village, so in total, DCMS is targeting 50,000 potential clients as receivers of financial services.

• The US Department of Agriculture is providing substantial food aid to Afghanistan:
  

  USDA plans to provide Afghanistan with food assistance valued at nearly $48 million in 2005. Our two countries recently signed a $15-million agreement under the Food for Progress program. The agreement calls for the Afghan government to sell 23,000 tons of U.S. soybean oil. Proceeds from the sale will support development through higher education, rural extension services and institutional capacity building. The Food for Progress program provides for donations of agricultural commodities to needy countries to encourage economic or agricultural reforms that foster free enterprise.

  In 2005, USDA will provide the International Fertilizer Development Corporation and Mercy Corps, Inc., with agricultural commodities valued at $10 million and $2.6 million, respectively, under the Food for Progress Program. Proceeds from the sale of these commodities will be used to support agricultural development programs in Afghanistan.

  Now in its third year, USDA is supporting a project in northern Afghanistan run by the Aga Khan Foundation. The project will use up to $10 million in U.S. nonfat dry milk to conduct school-feeding activities. The donations will consist of surplus commodities under the Section 416(b) program.

  USDA will also donate $10 million to World Vision under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program to continue the school feeding program in western Afghanistan begun in 2003.

  This assistance will be in addition to the $59 million in U.S. food aid already provided in 2003 and 2004.

• 
  San Francisco students are also helping: "Several North Bay high school bands have joined together to host the McNear's Beach Music Festival, a benefit for schools and youth programs in Afghanistan. The idea for the event came from a group of folk guitar students from Redwood High who wanted to support Afghans4Tomorrow, a nonprofit whose mission is the support of education, health and agriculture projects in Afghanistan."
  


• A Connecticut student is helping here father help the Afghan people:
  

  A Fairfield University senior came up with a unique Father's Day gift for her dad - water and clothing for villagers in Afghanistan.

  Mikaela Conley's father, Army Lt. Col. Christopher Conley, is involved in the U.S. military's efforts to build hospitals, schools and wells in Afghanistan.

  Mikaela Conley and her friend, Aamina Awan, a Fairfield University junior, raised $3,000 for construction of a well in Aloudine village and collected 30 boxes of clothing for the village's 200 families.

• More here.
  


• This girl from Kabul is receiving a gift of life:
  

  Growing up in the slums of Kabul and suffering from a life-threatening heart defect, 11-year-old Vasila Hossaini feared that she may only have a few more years to live.

  That was last year. Today, she's a beaming 12-year-old, with dazzling bright eyes, full of energy and soaking up the atmosphere of New York after charitable donations brought her here and helped pay for life-saving heart surgery at the New York University Medical Center.

  "I got a new life. I am not going to die," the young girl said Wednesday as she met to thank some of her benefactors at a New York apartment. Vasila said she's thrilled that she can now walk, dance and play with other children without the pain and fatigue that once made her feel doomed.

  The hopelessness began to fade when Vasila was discovered in Kabul by two independent filmmakers from the United States, Stacia Teele and Ed Robbins, who had traveled to Afghanistan to make a documentary about the war-ravaged country.

• And this Afghan boy has also benefitted from medical treatment:
  

  Zia Urrahman’s father was surprised and filled with joy when the boy showed how his right arm can move up to his head, a doctor said after surgery Thursday.

  “Everything went real well. Zia is in the recovery area, off the breathing machine,” Dr. John Mancoll, a plastic surgeon with St. Joseph Hospital, said after three hours of surgery.

  Scars from the burns were deeper in Zia’s back and armpit area, which made the surgery that was initially expected to last up to two-and-a-half hours take a little longer, Mancoll said.

  The 5-year-old Afghan boy was burned in a propane explosion at his home near Kabul. Members of the Indiana National Guard’s 76th Brigade, stationed at Camp Phoenix near Kabul, helped arrange treatment at the St. Joseph Regional Burn Center. The Northeast Indiana Burn Council raised money to bring Zia to Fort Wayne, and the hospital donated the cost of the surgeries and treatments.

• In response to recent rains which killed at least 50 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes in several villages in the Badakhshan province, aid organisations are springing into action:
  

  The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that both food and non-food emergency supplies, including tents and blankets, had been dispatched to Faizabad the provincial capital of Badakhshan over the past two days.

  The [Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development] has also airlifted 1,000 tents and 4,000 blankets for further distribution, officials said on Monday. Furthermore, a total of 88 mt of World Food Programme (WFP) assistance including wheat, oil, salt and pulses sufficient for nearly 9,000 people is on its way to reach 1,450 households in flood-affected areas.

  The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has also sent aid packages out, including 1,100 family kits and other non-food items to the disaster area.

• The United Nations' World Food Program also continues to assist those most in need. For example, in one week 16 - 22 June 2005, the WFP's help has reached 305,400 people.
  


• Lastly, this valuable work to assist Afghan sportspeople:
  

  The Afghan Sports Federation (ASF) is a non-profit organization based in Fairfax, Va. of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. It is run by volunteer individuals, for the benefit of sports among the Afghan youths and Adults both men and women at every level of excellence in the region, the United States and the world.

  Afghan Sports Federation was formally chartered in 1998 by a group of Afghan Soccer (Football) players and Soccer (Football) enthusiasts in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area who have managed soccer teams since 1979.

  The aim of ASF is to create a center of guidance or counseling for Afghan athletes (men and women) who want to be active in amateur sports or pursue professional career in any athletic field of his/her choice. ASF serves as administrative umbrella to individual and team sports. ASF currently oversees Afghan Soccer League, Afghan Basketball League, Afghan Volleyball League and Afghan Bowling League.

  Over the past four years, ASF as the only official governing body for athletes and athletics in the region has made tremendous contribution towards the rebuilding of sport organizations and sport arenas inside Afghanistan. In 2002, ASF with the support of its affiliates and the Afghanistan Assistance Coordination Authority were able to purchase uniforms and equipments to donate to the Afghan Olympic Committee. In 2003, Afghan Sports Federation with the help from Afghan Olympic Committee, FIFA, Asia Soccer Federation and the Kabul Municipality was able to secure land for Afghanistan Soccer Federation's first ever Soccer Stadium. In 2004, ASF was able to provide assistance to the Afghan National Olympic Committee by facilitating Afghan Athletes participation in Olympic 2004, in Athens.

  Over the next five years, ASF's goal is to assist in building of sports organization and sports infrastructures in major cities of Afghanistan and promote sports among the local population and bring the level of athletic competition to world level standard inside Afghanistan and have Afghanistan athletes participate at the 2008 Olympics on their own merit.

THE COALITION TROOPS:

• Rebuilding Afghanistan, one of the most impoverished countries in the world, is a daunting challenge. Every effort helps, and so the Coalition soldiers are also involved in various projects to improve life around the country, in addition to providing security.
  


• The Coalition forces are filling the gaps in health services devastated by decades of conflict:
  

  As Afghanistan struggles to create a functioning health care system after 23 years of war, military hospitals and mobile clinics run by coalition forces are the only hope for thousands of Afghans of getting adequate medical care.
  The Soviet occupation from 1979 to 1989, the civil war that followed it, and the subsequent medieval rule by Taliban militias destroyed what little health care infrastructure existed in the country before the Soviet invasion, and uprooted most doctors and nurses. According to the 2004 United Nations Human Development Report, there were only 210 health facilities with beds to hospitalize patients in the entire country last year. There are only 0.32 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared to 2.7 beds on average in other developing countries.
  
  There is only one doctor per 10,000 people, against an average 11 doctors per 10,000 people in other developing countries.

• The challenges of recovering from such devastation are tremendous, and in the meantime the troops are finding themselves the health and emergency care providers of first choice in many areas of the country:
  

  The 249th General Hospital from Fort Gordon, Ga., is the largest and most sophisticated medical facility in eastern Afghanistan, and it attracts patients from Khost and neighboring provinces.
  Spc. Stephen Scull, a hospital clerk, said that as of March 4, the 249th General Hospital has seen more than 650 patients in the surgical ward alone. In addition, it treated more than a hundred trauma patients.
  
  The hospital staff also set up regular clinics just outside the camp. At one such clinic Tuesday, Army medics saw 85 patients.
  
  Sgt. 1st Class James Gillen, a medic with C Company, 307th Logistics Task Force, said that often American doctors are the last hope for these patients.
  
  "A lot of times ... they come expecting a miracle," Sgt. Gillen said.
  
  Patients from remote villages, who have never seen a doctor, hitchhike for days on elaborately decorated "jingle trucks" to see a doctor at the hospital. Some in critical condition can be flown in by medevac helicopters.
  
  It is not surprising, then, that providing health care services to the population has become one of the most effective tools in winning the hearts and minds of Afghans, even in areas that were initially hostile to coalition troops, said Lt. Col. Mark McLaughlin, commander of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Asadabad, in Kunar province on the border with Pakistan.

• As this BBC report notes, often the Coalition facilities offer the best hope for emergency treatment:
  

  Cradled in the arms of a US special forces soldier, a fragile young girl is levered on to a Black Hawk helicopter, an American "ambulance of the sky" bristling with machine guns and operated by gun-toting medics...

  Her name is Kamila, and she is eight years old, possibly 10. She has just stepped on a landmine and she is clinging to life.

  The flight to the American field hospital at Camp Salerno, a US base within artillery range of the Pakistan border, takes 20 minutes.

  Treatment in Peshawar, Pakistan, her only other realistic option, would have taken eight hours by land - a journey she would likely not have survived...

  Rushed inside the hospital, where the Stars and Stripes hangs proudly above the operating table, Kamila is sedated, offered more oxygen and given an urgent transfusion.

• The troops are also trying to help rebuild Afghanistan's education system. Read the story of this Californian National Servicemen who for 15 months was working hard to make a difference from Bagram base:
  

  Here's a question that won't appear on final exams at engineering school:

  You've just built a makeshift school to house 300 Afghan girls recently liberated from Taliban laws that forbade them an education. When the school opens, 700 girls show up, many willing to stand for hours in 90 degree heat for the chance to learn.
  Jim Anderson recently finished a 15-month stint in Afghanistan where, as an engineer in the Army Reserves, he participated in the U.S. effort to rebuild the country's post-Taliban infrastructure.

  The will and funds exist to build more buildings, but construction material is scarce. Leaving the children to suffer in the hot sun is not an option. What do you do?

  Lt. Colonel Jim Anderson says he couldn't be happier to be home again after 15 months serving as an engineer with the U.S. Army Reserves in Afghanistan, but he's going to miss the excitement, the challenge and the reward of answering questions like this. (Hint: The answer involves leftovers.)

  "It was just amazing that so much was happening, and so quickly," Anderson said from his office at the Conoco-Phillips facility in Santa Maria. "And the amount of building that private enterprise was doing was exceptional ... People really want democracy and they really want free enterprise."

• Read also this report about the Soldiers of 173rd Combat Support Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment constructing an 84-kilometer road to their base, which will also link 16 small towns with larger centers. Says Army 1st. Lt. Greg Couterier, Assault and Barrier Platoon leader: "The last time that road was built was 35 years ago by the Russians... [The local are] really happy to have us fixing the road."
  


• The troops continue to carry out humanitarian missions throughout the country:
  

  U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules based in Southwest Asia delivered more than 50,000 pounds of civil assistance cargo to Afghans during four airlift missions May 18 to 30 supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Coalition aircraft airdropped more than 6,000 pounds of humanitarian aid bundles near Kandahar, Afghanistan, on May 30. These air drops were part of the larger civic assistance program Combined Joint Task Force 76 that officials initiated to run concurrent with their maneuver operations.

• Near the Bagram airbase, the troops have adopted another village:
  

  About 50 Airmen recently volunteered to organize a container filled with nearly 63,000 pounds of donated supplies for an additional mission here -- the adoption of a village.

  Airman sorted the supplies into groups for males, females, adults and children.

  The Airmen then traveled to a village several miles outside Bagram to distribute the supplies. They delivered bags filled with basic school supplies to about 200 children from Haji Khan Baba, a small village within Afghanistan’s Parwan Province.

  “Each child received his or her own toy and bundle of school supplies,” said 1st Lt. David Knight, a 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron operations officer. “We also dropped off about two pickup trucks full of large bags of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing with the village elder. The toys and school supplies were donated by our troops here and their support system back home. The donated items never seem to stop coming.”

• The troops also get called on to provide emergency assistance, such as this recent evacuation of 119 Afghans stranded by floodwater on a small island on the Indus River near Mehtar Lam in the Logman province.
  


• It's not just the American troops. The French battalion medics have recently been assisting one committed and couragous woman to deliver aid:
  

  That day FRENCHBAT Lieutenant Colonel de Camaret (Frenchbat medical chairman) was at the head of a very special mission in the south of Kabul near Baburs' tomb.

  The purpose was to deliver medicine, drugs, and medical tools to AWOSA organisation's dispensary. "All the team was concerned and gave a hand to the project" underlines OR1 Attagnant, a fierce looking but careful medic of the French Foreign Legion.

  After a very charming lady presented the doctor the project she is setting up in the south of Kabul, it was decided to do the best to support this program. The lady's name is Mrs. Sima Tabib, and after more than 24 years of exile in Switzerland she came back to Afghanistan a year ago. She founded AWOSA, a non-governmental organization called "Afghan Woman and Orphan Supporting Association". With her own money she built a dispensary in the compound of the house she was born in (a house which has suffered much in 20 years of war). Very concerned about womens health issues, she employs a doctor, Mrs. Amina Shams, and two senior nurses Mrs. Nouria Karimi, and Soheila Ibrahimi. The medical equipment and facilities were made available with the help of a German based non-governmental organization.

• Lithuanian forces are preparing themselves to take over one of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, leading units from Great Britain, the United States, Iceland and Denmark. "This will the most important mission in the history of Lithuania's military forces," says Lithuanian Defense Minister Gediminas Kirkilas.
  


• And a New Zealand soldier is helping to build the knowledge base at an Afghan hospital:
  

  Urgently needed medical textbooks on subjects ranging from paediatrics and podiatry to neurology and nursing will soon be on their way to an Afghanistan hospital, courtesy of some New Zealand' medical fraternity and a Territorial Force officer, Dunedin anaesthetist Dr John Wilson.

  Dr Wilson, who, as a Territorial Force soldier belongs to the Otago South Regiment, was the medical officer for a rotation of the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction team in Afghanistan last year. He is usually based at either Dunedin or Mercy hospitals.

  "In Bamyan where I was based with the NZPRT I helped train some of the nurses and doctors, and also worked as an anaesthetist. The Taliban destroyed most of their textbooks, and they were desperate for textbooks they could consult, both for on-going teaching or when they needed information during a medical procedure."

  "When I left to return to New Zealand they asked me if I could send them a anaesthetics text book. I talked to people I know in Dunedin about the work the PRT is doing, and the need for medical books, and before long I had quite a pile of them. In all about 150 have been donated, on nearly every medical subject you can think of."

• Also, this from the New Zealand contingent: "Kiwi money and manpower is bringing some new beginnings to Afghanistan. Work has started on a maternity ward in the local hospital in Bamyan in a project funded by NZAID. Some New Zealand defence force personnel are there for the laying of the first stones."

SECURITY:

• The authorities are optimistic about the security situation:
  

  Afghan security officials in the troubled south of the country say Taliban guerrillas are finished as a threat on the battlefield but they will be able to stage ambushes and bomb blasts for some time yet.

  The Taliban insurgency flared this spring after a lull over the snowbound winter months, disappointing many in the government and international community who thought the rebels had been mortally starved of resources and recruits.

  But in Kandahar, one of the provinces where the insurgents have been most active, officials said despite the recent violence, the Taliban were now a nuisance, not a military threat.

• Afghan forces are also improving security in the Paktika province:
  

  After a little more than four months of being permanently based here, the Afghan National Army's 3rd Kandak, 1st Brigade, 203rd Corps, is making instability in Paktika Province look like a thing of the past.

  With ANA troops operating out of bases in Shkin, Zormat, Orgun-E, Bermel and Lwara, triumph over anti-Coalition militants in Paktika is becoming more evident…

  In some cases, bases throughout the province that were once Taliban training camps are being taken over by the ANA, said Marine Lt. Col. Tom Beckman, commander of a 17-person embedded training team, who works closely with the Kandak.

  "They're sending a message that we've taken over your base and making it ours," said Beckman. The ANA has played a significant role in bringing stability to the province, Beckman said. "The importance really was putting an ANA face in Paktika Province," Beckman said. Afghans in the province were very receptive to the ANA soldiers when they arrived to the area, Ashraf said…

  What villagers came to understand very quickly was the ANA brought not only security to the province but jobs as well, said kandak commander Col. Anbia, who like many Afghans goes by one name.

  "There are a lot of opportunities for Afghans to find jobs for themselves," Anbia said of the job growth the ANA bases bring to the communities. "Afghans were living in disaster. It was a dark era in the past. Right now, people are recreating a lot of opportunities in Afghanistan. The country is going toward the light."

• And Afghanistan might be landlocked, but its one nautical boundary is now being surveyed to hopefully prevent future conflicts with its neighbor:
  

  A joint Afghan-Uzbek team comprising 40 experts has launched a survey to ascertain if the Amo River has really changed its course, leaving blurred nautical boundaries between the neighbours. Additionally, the surveyors will also determine which country islands on both sides of the river are located in. Isles have formed on either side, but there is no clarity yet which country they belong to.

  The surveyors initiated the difficult exercise after residents of riverine areas griped about frequent flooding – reportedly induced by Uzbek ships navigating there. Uzbek officials repudiate the claim, however.

  The mighty Central Asian river has been ravaging verdant farmlands and buildings in a string of northern Afghan villages. The 2500-kilometre-long Amo River flows through vast swathes of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan – sharing a 1,800-kilometer border.

  Commander Juma Gul Gildi, a member of the survey team, said that "Uzbek ships cruising toward Afghanistan make huge waves that damage areas situated close to the river on the Afghan side"...

  In order to prevent Uzbek ships from straying into Afghan waters, he continued, the delegates would thoroughly discuss and identify nautical boundaries between the two countries.

• Meanwhile, the amnesty program continues to bear fruit:
  

  The highest level Taliban commander to accept the Afghan government's amnesty offer has urged other Taliban members to take up the offer. After three and a half years on the run, Abdul Waheed Baghrani, a 51-year-old tribal chieftain from the northern Helmand province, recently came down from the mountains and surrendered... In return for surrendering, the American forces have organised aid deliveries to his area and have also offered to carry out reconstruction there. Baghrani is happy for the US military to stay in his country until it is able to defend itself, but only if US troops are always accompanied by their Afghan counterparts when raiding people's homes: "They come here to help us, and they should not do anything bad against our people," he said.

• And lower level members of the Taliban continue to integrate back into the society:
  

  Two ex-Taliban insurgents this week began the process of formally renouncing violence and swearing reconciliation to the duly elected government of Afghanistan. They are taking part in the government's Takhim-E Solh, or Strengthening Peace, program. Takhim-E Solh grants amnesty to mid- and low-level insurgents who agree to stop fighting and peacefully enter into civil society.

• Read the rest of the article to learn how the program works in practice. In other recent developments: "After talks with the 'National Unity Commission' in Paktia province, 250 opposition fighters left the Taleban forces and have returned to peaceful and normal life." In addition, "eleven Taliban leaders including some key figures have joined the reconciliation process in the southern Paktia province." "Former Taliban commander Saifur Rahman Sadiq, alias Safi has surrendered on Sunday [19 June] in the southern Khost province." Mullah Osmanullah Osman, Taliban commander in the Yaqubi district of the Khost province surrendered to authorities on June 28.
  


• Also recently, "eighteen opposition commanders affiliated with former prime minister and dissident warlord Gulbudin Hekmatyar have laid down their arms and joined the government" (more on that story here). In Takhar province, former mujahedin leader, Commander Piram Qul, laid down his arms in order to run for parliament. And "six former Jihadi commanders from the southern province of Helmand and the northeastern province of Faryab surrendered arms to the government on June 22." Overall, in the recent progress of the initiative,
  

  about 255 former jihadi commanders have so far voluntarily disarmed to join the upcoming parliamentary polls, says JEMB's spokesman Sultan Ahmad Bahin... The spokesman said the commanders had surrendered more than 2,000 heavy and light weapons... Meanwhile, a spokesman for the New Beginning for Afghanistan said 28 provinces had joined the DDR process, the second phase of which was started on June 2 from Nangarhar. The spokesman said 2056 different heavy and light weapons had been collected during the process.

• Most recently, four commanders in the Badakhshan province, and another 20 local commanders have laid down their arms in the Ghor province on 30 June in order to run in the coming election.
  


• Read also about this successful peacemaking effort:
  

  A conflict which has raged between neighbouring tribes in eastern Afghanistan for six decades, resulting in 60 deaths in the last year alone, has been resolved through the mediation of the United Nations mission in the country, a mission spokesman said today.

  Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that the Balkhel tribe of Paktya and the Sabari tribe of Khost last Wednesday agreed to unconditionally accept the decision of the Jirga of Greater Paktya Elders to end the conflict.

  The settlement came after two months of negotiations involving UNAMA and the three governors of Greater Paktya, who last week held a joint ceremony to announce the pact, along with the Jirga and representatives of coalition forces.

  An immediate benefit of the agreement will be an increase of construction activities in Greater Paktya, Mr. Edwards said. UNHCR has announced its interest in supporting the rebuilding of the road linking the two communities, which has been closed for the last eight years.

• The Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme has officially officially ended on June 30:
  

  The DDR has processed a total of 61,417 former Afghan militia force (AMF) members of which 52,509 have been assisted with reintegration package so far.

  The DDR, which started in November 2003 with Japan as the lead nation and major donor, has so far cost the international community more than US $100 million and is considered a major step towards restoring national security.

  "After today no one will be allowed to use or move weapons other than security organisations or those licensed to do so by the ministry of interior," Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said. According to UNAMA, 34,726 light and medium weapons have been collected under the DDR process, of which 14,754 have been handed to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), with the remainder held by the Afghan National Army.

• Here's one story from the New Beginnings Program:
  

  Sitting with six fellow commanders, Mohammad Daud, a 45-year-old ex-militiaman shared his impressions of a recent trip to Japan, as the former combatants gathered to receive certificates of demobilisation in the capital, Kabul.

  Daud was a leading commander in the southeastern Paktia province, fighting against both the invading Soviet army and later against the Taliban over the past two decades. He is now planning to fight against poverty and illiteracy in his hometown of Jaji, a border district in south of Paktia.

  "We are already too late. The people of Japan collectively started rehabilitation of their country right after the World War II but we are not making any progress in the last three years that war has been over," Daud said while his friends nodded in agreement, sharing Daud's concerns.

  "I think, we should work on education and agriculture for a sustainable development," he said. The ex-commander added that he was impressed with the agricultural and education systems in Japan when he visited Tokyo as part of a 10-day orientation trip organised by the UN-backed Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (ANBP), the official name of Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration of former combatants [DDR].

  ANBP has launched an initiative under the Commanders Incentive Programme (CIP) which grants ex-militia commanders financial assistance, or may send them abroad for short visits to learn from other experiences of post-conflict reconstruction.

  Daud is one of 11 former militia commanders from different military units around the country, that have been sent to Japan in two groups so far.

  He said he was impressed with Japan's forestation and industry, expressing deep concern that forests had disappeared in many parts of Afghanistan after decades of lawlessness and war.

  "Now let's fight against those who cut the trees and make their business, let's urge the local authorities and the tribal councils to encourage people to plant threes," he told other commanders who were on the same visit to Japan.

• Now, USAID is contributing another $3.5 million towards continuation of this valuable program.
  


• Demobilization also affected thousands of Afghanistan's children soldiers:
  

  Sitting around a tailor's table in a tiny shop, Najeebullah and his friends say they are proud to have once been child soldiers because now they are the only literate young people with jobs in Amirbai village, 35 km north of Kunduz, provincial town of the province with the same name in the north of the country. The group has been demobilised as part of a UN-backed programme after several years of life under arms...

  He's one of an estimated 8,000 child soldiers identified by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in post-war Afghanistan. Nearly 4,000 of these children have been demobilised and are actively involved in some form of rehabilitation under a UNICEF programme. The programme also addresses the needs of street children who have missed school through poverty or years of displacement.

  Najeebullah never went to school but managed to learn how to read and write in less than a year after joining an intensive literacy course which is obligatory for all demobilised child soldiers. He chose tailoring as a skill he wanted to master and now, six months later, he earns his living making clothes. He feels he has a future for the first time in his life.

  "I will soon join school as I can read and write now and will also open my own tailoring shop now that I have acquired a profession," he beamed while putting the finishing stitches in a pair of trousers he had made for a young relative.

• Training and equiping of Afghan security forces continue. The authorities are setting up a special police unit in Kabul. Meanwhile, there is more advanced training for Afghan police:
  

  The Afghan National Police graduated 11 police investigators from a course in crime scene investigation June 6...

  The training included classroom instruction and hands-on, practical exercises. Investigators learned about Afghan law and criminal procedures, protection and documentation of crime scenes, proper collection and preservation of evidence, crime scene photography and other fundamentals. They also completed a written examination.

  The Ministry of the Interior officially designated District 10 as the “model” station for Afghan police reform because of its strategic location in the capital. “U.S. civilian police mentors assigned to the District 10 ‘model’ police station project work alongside their Afghan counterparts daily,” said Dave Barrington, a U.S. police mentor with DynCorp International.

• 2,400 recruits a month are now joining the Afghan army through National Army Volunteer Centers. "There are 31 operational NAVCs, with four more under construction. One will be located in each of the country's 34 provinces, with two in the capital city of Kabul." And so, Army training continues to turn raw and enthusiastic recruits into a professional fighting force:
  

  As Afghanistan marches toward becoming a fully democratic nation, the Afghan National Army has marched another class of volunteer soldiers to graduation from basic training.

  Marking the 36th class to complete the training, 591 soldiers graduated from the Kabul Military Training Center on June 12.

  Several countries are involved in mentoring the Afghan basic training instructors, including the United States.

  "We are simply here to guide and give direction. We're like quality control," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Billy Rankin, mentor for the KMTC chief of staff. "It's their army -- some suggestions they like and some they don't like."

  This class was an infantry kandak (battalion). The soldiers learned basic tasks such as patrolling, conducting an attack, combat operations and marching.

  Their training is not finished, however; they still have to complete a field training exercise conducted by the Canadians and will then report to their assignments. This class will bring the ANA strength to 24,710 soldiers when they finish training.

• The growth and increasing professionalism and effectiveness of the Afghan army is in large part due to men like Sgt. Maj. Shamsadin, the command sergeant major of the 3rd Brigade, 201st Corp, a former refugee who returned home to serve in the new army right from the beginning, and has been recently given the official title "Grandfather of the Army" by the Ministry of Defence.
  


• In other recent development, "the Afghan National Army met another milestone recently when the first class of second-degree deminers graduated from a five-week advanced training course."
  


• Security forces are also growing more diverse:
  

  Faozia Mirakai grins widely and holds her gun as if she might drop it. But if threatened, she says, she could be a killer.

  Mirakai wears a green camouflage uniform and tan boots. The young woman punches her fists into the air alongside the Afghan men training to be anti-drug officers. She walks with a slight swagger. She jumps with the men, tries to do one-armed push-ups with them and marches with them. She makes faces at the men and jokes around.

  "Don't try to hit me," Mirakai says, pointing a Czech rifle in their direction.

  In most countries, the sight of a female police officer would hardly be interesting. But this is Afghanistan, where women were banned from working for years. Many women still are forced to stay at home. Many still wear burqas, which cover everything, even a woman's eyes.

• As the report notes, the work of female anti-drug enforcers is essential because of Afghanistan's cultural sensitivities, which prohibit male officers from searching women suspects - 20 of which have been arrested so far, smuggling drugs under their burquas.
  


• Thanks to international assistance, 911 is coming to Afgahanistan:
  

  The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International announced its participation in a project to create Afghanistan's first emergency telephone system...

  The project is being coordinated by the Kabul City Police (KCP) Communications Center Working Group, a joint effort of the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior, the KCP, Afghan Wireless Communication Company, the Roshan Wireless, Task Force Phoenix (the 76th Infantry Brigade, Indiana National Guard, U.S. Army), the German Police Support Projektburo, and the U.S. State Department Police Assistance program.

  The KCP Communications Center project will support this effort by developing a phone system using the existing cellular phone network to provide capabilities similar to 9-1-1 in the U.S. KCP will serve as the model for this new emergency call center.

• Construction of infrastructre for Afghan security forces also continues:
  

  The Military Entrance Processing Station in Kabul is the place where all new recruits will begin their journey to become Soldiers in the Afghan National Army. The MEPS, which is now under construction, is also where some Afghan workers are taking their place in the reconstruction of their country. Maj. Isaac Washington, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ resident project manager for the MEPS facility, said, “Over the next six months, we’ll construct some 12 buildings from nothing to something at a cost of approximately $9 to $10 million. When the buildings are completed at the end of this year, the Afghan National Army will be able to house and feed 2,400 recruits.”

• The center is only one small part of a bigger picture: overall, "the Afghanistan Engineer District (AED) of the US Army Corps of Engineers has built or is currently building facilities at 11 installations to house 35,000 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers in different provinces," according to Army spokesman James Yonts. "These facilities would be constructed in Kabul, Kandahar, Khost,Gerdez, Mazar-e-Sharif and Qalat... The projects costing over 814 million US dollars, according to the spokesman, would cover constructing 421 barracks, 73 administrative buildings, 12 dining facilities and 225 support facilities, which include morale, welfare and recreation such as gyms and community centers."
  


• Also recently, "President Hamid Karzai has inaugurated a 70 million US dollar military compound in the southern city of Gardez, capital of Paktia province. The huge compound for the 203rd unit of the Afghan National Army can house as many as 4,500 soldiers. Corps commander Rahmatullah Raufi said that the project was financed with some of the 250 million dollars pledged by the United States for the Afghan army."
  


• Taliban also continue to be disarmed:
  


• On 4 June, an arms caches was recovered in the Dandi Patan district in the southern province of Paktia;
  


• On June 11, two Taliban bombmakers have been identified by the locals in near Deh Rahwod and turned over to the authorities;
  


• "Troops from the 207th Corps of the Afghan National Army seized three trucks loaded with arms and munitions in the western province of Ghor on June 28, said defence ministry spokesman Zaher Murad";
  


• "Officials in the southeastern Khost province claimed recovering huge quantity of explosives and a cache of arms in Mandozai district on Monday [June 27]. The arms were dumped in a madressah, which was abandoned a year ago. On tip off, police raided the building and recovered 400 kilograms of explosives besides a number of rocket bullets, wires, bomb fuses, batteries, remote control bombs and two official number plates";
  


• On June 29, "security officials in the northern Herat province claimed unearthing a dump of arms and ammunitions in Injil and Guzra districts of the province... 250 light and heavy arms including anti-tank and personnel mines had been recovered over two days".
  


• In other recent security successes:
  


• Killing of 10 Taliban in two days of clashes with security forces in the Zabul province in late May;
  


• The capture by the Afghan army of two high-ranking Taliban commanders: "Hajji Sultan, the former Taliban military commander for the western zone of Afghanistan covering Farah and Nimruz Provinces and the Shindand region... [and] Mullah Muhammad Rahim, a former deputy frontline commander from western Afghanistan." Both are accused of orchestrating a string of terrorist attacks;
  


• "Three insurgents were captured and one was killed... following an ambush of Afghan and coalition forces south of Qalat in Afghanistan's Zabul province" on May 5;
  


• The arrest on June 8 of Mullah Abdul Razak, Taliban leader in Arghandab district, just north of Kandahar; "[he] was handed over to coalition forces after being caught traveling in a taxi when troops at a checkpoint recognized his face from a list of photographs of wanted suspects";
  


• Seven Taliban fighters killed in an unsuccessful ambush of a joint Coalition-Afghan patrol in Paktika province on June 9;
  


• Two suspected Taliban arrested during a crackdown in Kandahar province on June 9; BM-12 missiles were recovered from one of the arrested;
  


• Three roadside bombs discovered and defused by the Coalition and Afghan forces around the country on June 13; another three bombs defused on the same day in Kandahar;
  


• Seven Taliban killed, 13 wounded and 2 arrested following a firefight with the Afghan army in Mian Nishin district of Kandahar province on June 15;
  


• "Government forces claimed Thursday [June 16] they had seized sensitive documents containing the satellite phone number of elusive Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar. The documents were recovered from five Taliban fighters including a Taliban held a day earlier in Gillan district of the southern Ghazni province. The arrests came during a hunt for combatants hiding in the area. Major Dost Mohammad told Pajhwok Afghan News Mullah Naqib, formerly a police chief in a district of the province, was captured at the end of a weeklong search operation for insurgents in the region. He added the search also yielded a truckload of weapons seized from Taliban remnants in Gillan, Maqur and Nawa districts. Earlier during the operation, the intelligence chief of Jawzjan said, Taliban Commander Hazrat Ali was also arrested from the Gillan district";
  


• Two Taliban commanders, Abdul Haq and Mullah Idrees, captured by the Afghan army in south west of the country on June 17;
  


• Between 15 and 20 Taliban killed in an airstrike called following an ambush on a joint American-Afghan patrol in Helmand province on June 19; eight more Taliban killed the same day by the government forces in Zabul province;
  


• The arrest on June 20 of three Pakistanis planning to assassinate the US Ambassador in Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad;
  


• The killing of over 100 Taliban in three days of fighting in the Daychopan district of Zabul province between 21 and 23 June; another 80 killed over the following few days;
  


• 60 Taleban killed and 30 captured in the Mian Shin district of the southern province of Kandahar on June 21; you can read this extensive report from the operation here;
  


• Four roadside bombs neuralized throughout the country on June 24; "'Afghan and coalition forces routinely find these devices in Afghanistan,' said Army Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force 76. 'Our forces are getting better at spotting the signs of their presence. ... ( The IEDs ) often are turned in to us by Afghans who are tired of the senseless violence that they cause.' According to O'Hara, the devices usually are placed and detonated by individuals with no real animosity toward coalition forces. 'We often find that the person who places the device or attempts to detonate it is motivated by nothing more than money or fear of reprisal against his loved ones if he refuses the terrorists' demands,' he explained";
  


• Two Taliban commanders arrested on June 26/27 in the Helmand province;
  


• Ten suspected Taliban fighters arrested in the Farah province on June 28;
  


• Five Pakistanis arrested on June 29, on the road to Kandahar, accused of planning terrorist attacks;
  


• "Afghan National police, with assistance of US-led Coalition Troops, have killed five suspected Taleban militants and detained nine others in southern Zabul province since June 2".
  


• Afghan authorities are making slow and steady progress in the fight against drugs:
  

  Afghanistan has embarked on a concerted campaign to tackle its booming narcotics trade, the counter narcotics minister, Habibullah Qaderi announced, following an event that included the burning of 30 mt of refined and raw opium on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, on Sunday [25 June].

  The move marked the United Nations international day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking.

  Afghanistan produced 4,600 mt of opium in 2004, accounting for 86 percent of the total world supply of the highly addictive drug. According to the ministry of interior, Sunday's ritual incineration of drugs seized in recent months was the largest ever. The previous record,13.8 mt of cocaine was burned in Colombia only last month.

  Afghan officials say their 'get tough' policy is bearing fruit and that they are seizing ever-increasing amounts of drugs. Up to 50 drug traffickers are currently being tried in Afghan courts.

  Qaderi said the country was beginning to turn the tide against drugs and hoped for a 30 percent reduction in poppy cultivation this year.

• With foreign assistance, the authorities are trying to dissuade farmers from growing opium:
  

  The government is mulling to invest $2 million in Ghor province to discourage poppy cultivation and provide alternative sources of income to the people.

  The amount being provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will be spent under the National Emergency Employment Programme (NEEP) to provide maximum employment opportunities to the people of that province.

  A team comprising the Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Hanif Atmar, agriculture experts and provincial officials visited the target areas on Sunday [25 June].

• Other farmers are already receiving assistance: "The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has distributed more than 45 metric tonnes of improved seeds and 232 tons of fertiliser to farmers in the southern province of Urozgan. Ministry spokesman Abdul Latif Rasouli said that 3,500 farmers had benefited from the assistance, provided by USAID, which is part of efforts to end opium poppy cultivation through improved cultivation of alternative crops."
  


• In other recent successes in the war on drugs:
  


• Recovery and destruction in southern Helmand and eastern Nangarhar provinces in early June of 21 tonnes of opium, 180 kilograms of heroin and a significant amount of chemicals used in processing drugs;
  


• "Security officials seized 850 kilograms of hashish in the Spin Boldak district of the southern Kandahar province" in early June;
  


• On June 11, "six smugglers were arrested in the southwestern Helmand province along with 1,690 kilograms of opium";
  


• Two days later, again in the Helmand province, the authorities busted another ring and seized four tons of heroin;
  


• On June 16, "police had seized 89 kilograms of narcotics at two different points on the Kabul-Jalalabad Highway"; also "police in the southern Zabul province arrested two alleged smugglers along with 180 kilograms of heroin";
  


• More than 30 heroin labs destroyed in Jalalabad on June 19;
  


• "Counter-narcotics officials claimed seizing 500 kilograms of hashish in the Niazi Kala area of the Gardez city in Paktia" on June 21;
  


• On 25 June, the police in Helmand province have seized 4 tons of opium and 20 kg of heroin, seizing six people in the operation;
  
  334 kg of opium seized on June 27 in two incidents in Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces;
  


• In late June, "police destroyed seven heroin manufacturing laboratories in the Argo district of the northeastern Badakhshan province. Badakhshan police chief Colonel Shah Jehan Noori said labs were wiped out in the villages of Aab Barek, Dah Dara, Hazar Mashi, Tajikha over three days. Twenty one kilogrammes of opium and four kilogrammes of heroin were also recovered during the crackdown".

So much still remains to be done, but so much has already been achieved over the past three years. Air Force Gen. Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong, has recently shared his impressions of Afghanistan's recent journey:

Two or three years ago, Foglesong said, he'd drive through the Afghan capital of Kabul and see groups of older men on street corners, but not much else. Six months later, young men began appearing, many of them opening up shops and bringing their families along. A year later, young women and children -- long hidden from view under the Taliban regime -- began walking around.

"You could feel the town come alive. It's vibrant now," the general said. "It's a refresher course for me in national enthusiasm to see what has happened in Afghanistan over the last two or three years."

Foglesong said he's convinced the Afghan people never want to return to the days of oppression when the Taliban ruled with an iron fist and terrorists operated freely.

"They have this taste of freedom now, and I don't think they'll ever go back," he said.

But they will need plenty of our support and encouragement. The worst disservice that the international media can do to Asia's newest democracy is to accentuate the negative and thus convince everyone that Afghanistan is a hopeless basketcase that's not worth our efforts. The long suffering people of Afghanistan deserve better than that.

As always, if you have any tips for future editions, please email goodnewsafghanistan “at” windsofchange “dot” net.

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